The 

Roman Catholic Bible 

and the 

Roman Catholic Church 

Allen W Johnston. 





Class _L 
Book 



T 



Copight}^?- 



CQESilGHT DEPOSm 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

AND THE 

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

AND THE 

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 



BY 

ALLEN W. JOHNSTON 

A PROTESTANT BUSINESS MAN 



WITH FOREWORD BY 

DAVID JAMES BURRELL, D.D. 




New York Chicago 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1921, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 






Printed in United States of America 



DEC 12 1921 



New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 



©CI,A630746 



FOREWORD 
David James Burrell, D.D. 

IF I were to write a book on any phase of Romanisni 
it would be likely to reek with Protestant prejudice, 
I having been born and bred and theologized that 
way. But my friend Allen W. Johnston, who is a plain 
business man and therefore without any dyed-in-the- 
wool bias, is in a position to give, as they say, even the 
devil his due. 

If the book seems to militate against the Catholic 
Church — and I confess it squints that way to me — the 
reader will at once perceive that not the author but his 
facts are to be blamed for it. Unless I am much mis- 
taken he will be set down as one of the most magnan- 
imous pirates that ever scuttled a ship. He reasons so 
well and withal in such a kindly spirit that if I were to 
offer any criticism — as he has frankly challenged me to 
do — it would be on the ground that he is so oppressively 
polite. However, his argument must stand on its own 
bottom and there, in my modest judgment, it stands well. 

To hale the Hierarchy before the bar of the Douay 
Version was a happy thought, not unlike that of John 
Bunyan who wrote his apologia for Pilgrims Progress 
on this wise: 

"I find that Holy Writ, in many places, 
Hath semblance with this method; where the cases 
Do call for one thing to set forth another : 
Use it I may then, and yet nothing smother 
Truth's golden beams ; nay, by this method may 
Make it cast forth its rays as light as day." 

5 



PREFACE 

THE purpose of the author is to set forth the Holy 
Scripture, while pointing to the application made 
of it in tenets of the Roman Catholic Church. 

If the reader will give impartial attention, the author's 
purpose will have met with success, and as we believe, 
the reader edified. 

[The author's work herein is from consideration given 
the subject matter at various times during the past eight 
years. Scriptural quotations are from the Douay Version 
of the Holy Bible as used by the Roman Catholic Church. 

As we ask attention in particular to the Douay Version 
of Scripture, it is expected that copious quotations will 
be made therefrom, in treating the subjects of these 
pages. 

The following quotations relating to its inspiration are 
from the title pages of the Holy Bible according to the 
Douay and Rheims Versions, with annotations by the 
Rev. Dr. Challoner, authorized by the various CathoHc 
bishops : 

^'Inspiration as understood in this matter means a 
certain influence of the Divine Spirit upon the mind of 
a writer, moving h m to write, and so acting upon him 
while he writes, that his work or writing is truly the 
word of God." 

*The proof of the inspiration of the Scriptures is easy 
on Catholic principles. The Church of Christ has al- 
ways held and taught the doctrine of the Scripture and 
as the Church cannot err in what she teaches therefore 
the Scriptures are inspired." 

— Title Page — Douay and Rheims Version. 
7 



8 PREFACE 

May not the time be approaching when Christendom 
holding to faith in the Trinity, the Incarnation of the 
Only Begotten Son of God, and His resurrection, will 
for its own protection and for the needs of the world at 
large require some material form of Christian union? 

If Supremacy and Infallibility of the Popes, Invoca- 
tion of Saints, the Worship of Mary, Purgatory, and 
Prayer for the Dead, the construction placed upon the 
Last Supper of Our Lord with His disciples by the 
Roman Catholic tenet of "The Holy Eucharist," the Sac- 
rifices of the Mass, Penance, Indulgences, the Forgive- 
ness of Sins by Other Than Christ, are at variance with 
the Scripture, they must therefore be placed in the cata- 
logue of the church dogma, which is so large a part 
of the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church. 

A. W. J. 

Schenectady, N. Y. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Primacy of Peter ii, 

II. Infallibility and Supremacy of the 

Popes 32 

III. Invocation of Saints 50 

IV. The Worship of Mary^ and the Immacu- 

late Conception 60 

V. The Holy Eucharist 71 

VI. Purgatory 83 

VII. The Sacrament of Penance ... 96 

VIII. Indulgences ....... 109 

IX. The Bible and the Church . . .116 

X. Conclusion . . .; . . . . 134 



PRIMACY OF PETER 

CONSIDERATION of church unity is in recent 
years fortunately augmented by public state- 
ments of the late James Cardinal Gibbons. That 
so highly esteemed a personality and authority should 
present so plain a statement of the Roman Catholic posi- 
tion, is most opportune. 

We quote from an interview with the Archbishop, pub- 
lished in a New York daily several years ago: (He was 
reported not long before his death as again expressing 
his willingness to lend such helping hand.) 

"The re-union of the scattered branches of Christen- 
dom is a consummation devoutly to be wished, and I 
would gladly sacrifice the remaining years of my life in 
lending a helping hand toward this blessed result. The 
first essential requirement is the successor of St. Peter 
as the divinely appointed head of Christendom. Once the 
proper position of the Pope is recognized, I do not be- 
lieve that the other contraverted doctrines are as formida- 
ble as is commonly imagined." 

No one outside of the Roman Catholic Church could 
consistently question its privilege to select its own ec- 
clesiastical rulers. It is when presuming that such rulers 
should be at the head of Christendom, as an essential 
requirement divinely appointed in effecting a union of 
branches, that questioning becomes consistent. 

There is room in Christ's Kingdom for all mankind 
who will work in His name, though that Kingdom is not 

II 



12 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

of this world, for this world shall become the Kingdom 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

So much truth is held in common in Christendom that 
(using the word ^'Christendom" in its broadest sense) 
we who are a part of it ought to have little or no dif- 
ficulty in receiving and acknowledging the invitation. 

"A just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me, 
be converted to me, and you shall be saved, all ye ends 
of the earth." ^ 

Where the invitation has been both received and ac- 
cepted, may not the word given by the inspired and cou- 
rageous Apostle Paul be accepted? 

"For you are all one in Christ Jesus." ^ 

Paul's ministry was given amid daily experiences which 
threatened disaster, yet he looked beneath the surface of 
troubled waters and discerned the oneness of God's peo- 
ple. Finding warring minds could be one in His own 
love, much more were they one in a Supreme love; and 
thus he wrote to the Philippians, 

"In one spirit, with one mind laboring together for 
the faith of the gospel." ^ 

May we not be hopeful that some day not far off 
Christendom may realize how good it is for "brethren to 
dwell together in unity " ? 

With deep respect for the feelings of those w^ho hold 
a belief either in the "Primacy of Peter" and the su- 
premacy of the popes as his successors (or in the " His- 
toric Episcopate") we submit that if those doctrines are 
divinely appointed, and are essential in the Church of 
Jesus Christ, then the barriers they raise against a com- 
mon communion with those who refuse to accept them 
are also divinely appointed and not to be called in ques- 
tion. If, however, such doctrines are not of Divine 

* Isaiah 45. ' Gal. 3. * Phil. i. 



PRIMACY OF PETER 13 

appointment nor essential in the Church of Jesus Christ, 
there can be no substantial ground for the existence of 
the barriers they raise. 

In considering the question submitted, to present less 
than one's sincere behef would be trifling with the ques- 
tion; to assert one's belief without setting forth its 
source, would be doing so without due consideration for 
the question raised. 

Charles Dickens truthfully wrote : 

"There is nothing so strong or safe in any emergency 
of Hfe as the simple truth." 

A proven last will and testament forever bars out all 
contradictory evidence of the purpose of the testator. 
An executor of the will must base his acts upon the 
proven Vv^ill. For the basis of our belief in Jesus Christ, 
we must accept therefore the Old and New Testament, 
and with them accept the admonition of the Apostle 
Peter, 

" The more firm prophetical word, whereunto you do 
well to attend, understanding this first, that no prophecy 
of Scripture is made by private interpretation."^ 

To the impulsive, genuine Peter, with his desire to be 
at the front, was given a leadership among the disciples. 
The deliberate, conservative James was made the pre- 
siding head of the disciples at Jerusalem. To the loving 
John, whose theme was the unity of God the Father 
with man through Jesus Christ, was given a place on 
the Saviour's breast. To Thomas was given the needed 
placing of his hand in the side of his Lord, that he be 
not faithless. To Paul, to whom is due the breaking 
of the bread of life more than to any other disciple, 
was given the opportunity to give that bread to the 
Gentiles. 

* II Peter i. 



14 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

The question may fairly be asked by all ^vho unite 
in belief in the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Resur- 
rection if their neighbor organization, the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, is utilizing its profession in these doctrines 
as well as its Douay Version of the Holy Scriptures, 
to best advantage. Is it giving forth from its high posi- 
tion among the Christian people of the world, teach- 
ings which accord with those doctrines and its version 
of the Scriptures? 

It is a privilege to take from a work entitled "The 
Faith of Our Fathers," by the late James Cardinal Gib- 
bons, of Baltimore, ^Id., an authentic review of these 
"tenets" of the Roman Catholic Church referred to. 

In the introduction to his book, the reverend author 
says : 

"I have imbibed her doctrine with my mother's milk. 
I have made her history and theolog}^ the study of my 
life." 

From this authority we take the tenets which are un- 
doubtedly those of the Romish Church. 

Incidentally, in discussing the "Primacy of Peter," 
we also discuss the "Historic Episcopate." 

Archbishop Gibbons has offered scriptural authority 
for the various tenets of the Roman Catholic Church. 
It is our purpose to review here his expressed convic- 
tions of the Primacy of Peter and the supremacy of 
the popes as Peter's successors, in the light of the 
Scriptures, believing that in doing so we make plain the 
supremacy of Jesus Christ only, in His own church, 
both in the past and in the present, and the unity of the 
apostles and all believers in Him, without respect of per- 
sons. ^Manifestly, if such is the truth, the evidence of 
such truth must perA^ade the Scriptures and not be de- 
pendent solely upon a particular sentence of Scripture. 



PRIMACY OF PETER 15 

If, on the other hand, a supremacy so great in its re- 
lation to 

**the Church of the First Born who are written in the 
heavens." ^ 

has indeed been given to an apostle who may act as a 
sovereign ruler over His church and to popes who may 
succeed, it must also follow, that evidence of such di- 
vinely appointed authority must necessarily pervade the 
Scriptures, especially that portion written during the 
formation of the Christian Church. 

If a pontiff and his advisers are divinely appointed as 
sole and supreme custodians of the Holy Spirit in His 
interpretations of the Word which is above all words, 
then we may expect to find so profound a truth per- 
vading all Scriptural teaching, and not to hinge upon 
any one of its sentences. 

In Archbishop Gibbons' expressed views of the 
Primacy of Peter occurs the following: 

"Any church that does not recognize Peter as its 
foundation stone is not the church of Christ." 

—Page 123 

Is it possible for an apostle of our Lord to be a por- 
tion of Plis Body and also to be the foundation of His 
Body? 

"He is the head of the body, the Church." « 
"and cherisheth it as also Christ doth the Church be- 
cause we are members of His Body, of His flesh, and 
of His bones." ^ 

"The Lamb which was slain from the beginning of 
the world." « 

"In the beginning was the word and the word was 

«Heb. 12. «Col. I. ''Eph. 5. ^Rqv, 13. 



i6 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

with God and the word was God. . . . And the word 
was made flesh and dwelt among us." ® 

Shall we not therefore hold unitedly to the Gospel 
message ? 

And thus in holding on to the precious truth, must we 
not of necessity agree that no disciple of Christ saved 
by the Word, could possibly be the foundation of the 
Church of Jesus Christ (His body) the Word made 
flesh. 

"For he is our peace who hath made both one, and 
breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmi- 
ties in his flesh." '' 

We however give space to a more ample quotation 
from Archbishop Gibbons, in which the doctrine of Peter 
as the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ ap- 
pears in his discussion of the 'Tnfallibility of the Pope," 
as follows : 

The following passages of the Gospel spoken at dif- 
ferent times were addressed exclusively to Peter — "Thou 
art Peter and on this rock I will build my church, and 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." *T the 
Supreme Architect of the Universe," says our Saviour, 
"will establish a church which is to last till the end of 
time. I will lay the foundation of this church so deep 
and strong on the rock of truth that the winds and 
storms of error shall not prevail against it. Thou, O 
Peter, shall be the foundation of this church. It shall 
never fall because thou shalt never be shaken, because 
thou shalt rest on Me, the rock of truth." The church 
of which Peter is the foundation is declared to be im- 
pregnable, that is, proof against error. How can you 
suppose an immovable edifice built on a tottering foun- 
dation, for it is not the building that sustains the founda- 
tion, but it is the foundation that supports the build- 
ing. —Page 151 

»John I. lOEph. 



PRIMACY OF PETER 17 

In the above quotation from Cardinal Gibbons' book, 
for first part given in quotation marks, reference is given 
to Matthew 16. Although stating that "the following 
passages of the gospel spoken at different times were 
addressed exclusively to Peter," no such passages as 
are in quotation marks have any reference given for 
them, nor can they be found in the Roman Catholic 
Bible, or in any version of the Bible known. 

Further, the interpretation given by the Reverend 
Author to the first quotation from Matt. 16, is not borne 
out by Scripture. 

The desire among the disciples for supremacy worked 
itself out on various occasions. Once "in the way they 
had disputed among themselves, which of them should 
be the greatest" (and this apparently after the Rev- 
erend Cardinal claims that Peter had been told by Our 
Lord that he was to be the foundation for the church). 
Our Lord, although addressing all of the disciples at 
first, when Peter gave the true revelation of Jesus as 
the Christ, addressed him, saying: 

"Blessed are thou, Simon Barjona, because flesh and 
blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who 
is in heaven." ^^ 

"And I say to thee: That thou art Peter, and upon 
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it." 

Having thus declared against flesh and blood as the 
power that enlightened Peter as to the Saviour's mis- 
sion and His Deity, how can we properly interpret His 
words as applying to flesh and blood as a foundation for 
His church? 

Having called attention before the disciples to Peter's 
name of a stone or a rock (one word answering to both 

11 Matt. 16. 



i8 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

in the mother tongue of the country), He now speaks 
of Himself as ''this Rock," upon which He will build 
His church, witnessed by the Father's revelation through 
Peter that He was the Christ, the Son of the living 
God. Had the designation been Peter as the rock, it 
would undoubtedly have been similar to the designa- 
tion, "Thou, O Peter, shall be the foundation of this 
church," as quoted above from Cardinal Gibbons' book, 
instead of ''this rock," one name of the Deity, "The 
Rock." 

The Saviour evidently desired this witness of Him- 
self ; and His command to the disciples that they should 
"tell no one that He was Jesus Christ," is evidence that 
they believed in Him as the Christ, although Peter was 
the foremost to make the answer. 

"And the rock was Christ." " 

One difficulty found in the way of accepting these de- 
ductions of Cardinal Gibbons, lies in the fact that when 
looking for Peter's position in the Scriptural structure, 
we find him to be a stone built on the Chief Corner 
Stone. 

"If so be you have tasted that the Lord is sweet, 
unto whom coming as to a living stone, rejected indeed 
oi men but chosen and made honorable by God. Be ye 
also as living stone built up, a spiritual house, a holy 
priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to 
God by Jesus Christ, wherefore it is said in the 
Scripture; Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, 
elect, precious. And he that shall believe in him, shall 
not be confounded." ^^ 

The chief corner stone of a structure is fundamental, 
being rather of that completed foundation to which the 
stones to be built up into a building are brought. 
12 1 Cor. 10:4. ^^I Peter 2. 



PRIMACY OF PETER 19 

The Apostle Paul writes : 

"You are God's building. According to the grace of 
God that is given to me, as a wise architect, I have laid 
the foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let 
every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon, for 
other foundation no man can lay than that which is laid 
which is Christ Jesus." ^* 

"Christ as the Son in his own house: which house 
are we, if we hold fast the confidence and glory of hope 
unto the end." ^^ 

Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone: In 
whom all the building, being framed together, groweth 
up into an holy temple in the Lord." ^^ 

We meet with yet another difficulty in accepting the 
Apostle Peter as the foundation of the Church of Christ ; 
thus if we make the Lord's words to apply to Peter 
as the rock upon which the church is to be builded, we 
must of necessity make a personal application to Peter 
of the Lord's words on the same occasion, when 

"Turning, who said to Peter, Go behind me, 
Satan." ^^ 

It is true that afterward Peter became strong, par- 
taking of the nature of the Rock, but so did the other 
apostles, including the doubting Thomas. 

Peter had made in the one a confession of the Rock 
on which the spiritual house was to grow into an holy 
temple in the Lord ; in the other instance he was rebuked 
for unbelief in the Lord's broken body as the Church 
of Jesus Christ. There we have a consistent interpre- 
tation of our Lord's words. For if the gates of hell 
could on this occasion and later prevail even though 

^* I Cor. 3 : 9, 10, II. i« Eph. 2. 

15 Heb. 3. 1^ Matt. 16. 



20 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

temporarily against Peter, such a foundation for the 
Church of Christ would be insecure, when he temporarily 
denied Him who prayed for him, and rescued him from 
the desire of Satan to sift him as wheat. On the con- 
trary, Peter's confession of Christ as the Son of the 
living God is a sure foundation, making us one with 
Him who is the Rock, Christ Jesus. 

''And they drank of the spiritual rock that followed 
them and the rock was Christ." ^^ 

The giving of the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to 
Peter, and the binding and loosing which naturally fol- 
lowed the use of the keys, was no greater gift of power 
than that which later was a gift to all the disciples, of 
binding and loosing, namely: 

"Again I say to you that if two of you shall consent 
upon earth concerning anything whatsoever they shall 
ask, it shall be done to them by my Father who is in 
Heaven." ^^ 

How can the giving of the keys of the Kingdom of 
Heaven have any other meaning than the preaching and 
teaching of Christ and Him crucified, that work which 
the disciples were to take up in His name who Himself is 
the door of the fold. 

"For you are all the children of God by faith in 
Christ Jesus." '' 

"And believing shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and 
glorified receiving the end of your faith, even the salva- 
tion of your souls." ^^ 

The college president who reminds the graduate that 
he now has the keys to a great degree of success, may 
consistently say the same to every member of the gradu- 
ating class. 

18 I Cor. 10. 19 Matt. i8. 20 Gal. 3. 21 1 Peter i. 



PRIMACY OF PETER 21 

The Mayor of London in giving the keys of the city 
to a guest, does not give with them a lordship over the in- 
habitants; an opportunity only is given 

In sending forth the disciples, Jesus said, 

"As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When 
he had said this, he breathed on them and he said to 
them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost." ^^ 

The guidance of the Holy Spirit is made supreme, 
and no other authority was placed between Him and 
his early disciples. They chose from among the number 
of disciples those to whom a special work was given, 
and all followed the Spirit. 

'Teter is even called by St. Matthew The first 
apostle.' " — Cardinal Gibbons. — Page 126 

Both Andrew and Peter met the Saviour when He 
was with John the Baptist, but now when called into 
discipleship, with the promise that He would make them 
fishers of men, they are mentioned in the order in which 
they were chosen. 

"And Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two 
brethren, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his 
brother." ^3 

"And going on from thence he saw other two brethren, 
James the son of Zebedee and John his brother." 

In the synoptic gospel, Peter's name uniformly appears 
first in this group of four. 

Immediately following an admonition there is given 
to Peter the warning that Satan desired him, that he 
might sift him as wheat, and the Lord's saying, 

"But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." "* 

Upon this statement of our Lord, Cardinal Gibbons 
makes the following comment : 

22 John 20. 23 Matt. 4. 24 Luke 22. 



22 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

"It is worthy of note that Jesus prays only for Peter. 
And why for Peter in particular? Because on his 
shoulders was to rest the burdem of the Church. . . . 
We know that the prayer of Jesus is always heard, there- 
fore the faith of Peter will always be firm. He was 
destined to be the oracle which all were to consult." 

—Page 152 

But how may we reconcile the Archbishop's expres- 
sions with the following Scripture from the Apostle 
Peter : 

"If any man speak, let him speak as the words of God. 
If any man minister, let him do it as of the power which 
God administereth" ^^ 

The apostle, if he had been given a primacy over the 
church of Jesus Christ, endowed with the responsibility 
of being the "oracle which all were to consult," would 
have been throwing off that responsibility if he had ex- 
horted all speaking to "speak as the words of God." 

Peter when writing this Scripture, was impelled by the 
same Spirit which prompted this prayer of his Lord, 
when about to leave His disciples, 

"That they all may be one as thou, Father, in me, and 
I in thee, that they alsd may be one in us." ^^ 

The strife between the disciples as to which should 
be greatest is sufficient evidence that their Lord had 
never instituted a primacy in Peter, nor had made known 
that one of their number was an oracle whom all were 
to consult. 

On the other hand, they were expressly told that 

"The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my 
name, he will teach you all things." ^^ 

The leavetaking would seem to have been, of all 
times, the time, when had there been a supremacy ac- 
corded to any disciple of our Lord, such a supremacy 

25 1 St. Peter 4:11. 26 John 17. 27 John 14. 



PRIMACY OF PETER 23 

would have been made known, and the apostle so ap- 
pointed have been acknowledged as "Vicar of Christ." 

Instead of such a manifestation at the Last Supper, 
we find the disciple whom Jesus loved, leaning upon His 
breast, and the lovable and impulsive Peter asking him 
to question his Lord as to who should be the betrayer. 

Could language be used more effectually in setting 
forth the Saviour's love for His disciples and His desire 
to have them understand their oneness in Him, than that 
used by our Lord on this occasion? How could their 
desire of supremacy have had a more gentle rebuke than 
by having their Lord gird Himself and wash their feet? 

"In the apostolic council of Jerusalem, Peter is the 
first whose sentiments are recorded. Before his dis- 
course 'there was much disputing,' but when he had 
ceased to speak 'all the multitude held their peace.' St. 
James and the other apostles concur in the sentiments 
of Peter without a single dissenting voice." 

— Archbishop Gibbons — Page 127 

We find upon referring to the Book of Acts, that it 
was the Apostle James who presided at Jerusalem in a 
general assembly. 

"and when we were come to Jerusalem the brethren 
received us gladly, and the day following Paul went in 
with us unto James, and all the ancients were as- 
sembled." 28 

At the apostolic conference referred to by Archbishop 
Gibbons, after much disputing, in which opposite sides 
evidently appeared, Peter set forth his argument, siding 
with Paul and Barnabas. Then Peter rested, 

"And all the multitude held their peace." ^'^ 

Then Paul and Barnabas were heard, 

28 Acts 21. 29 Acis 15. 



24 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

*'And after they had held their peace, James answered, 
saymg: Men, brethren, hear me." 

Here the Apostle James sums up the case and renders 
his decision, as follows : 

"For which cause I judge that they, who from among 
the Gentiles, are converted to God, are not to be dis- 
quieted." 

Does Peter appear as an oracle here, differing in any 
way as such from Paul or Barnabas, and does not James 
render the decision rather than Peter? 

This decision was incorporated in a letter which was 
sent to Antioch, *'For it hath seemed good to the Holy 
Ghost and to us to lay no further burden upon you than 
these necessary things." 

It is not Peter who spoke, nor James the brother of 
our Lord, who presided, nor John the beloved disciple, 
who are mentioned here as holding a supremacy, but the 
Holy Ghost, a recognition of a fulfillment of our Lord's 
promise to send them the Holy Ghost, who should teach 
His disciples all things, and it was on His teaching 
they relied in rendering their decision embodied in the 
letter to Antioch. 

Such a primacy as made Peter a Vicar of Christ would 
therefore seem not to have existed, for such a confer- 
ence as that held at Jerusalem would have been out of 
the question with such a responsibility resting upon Peter 
as the following quotation from Archbishop Gibbons in- 
dicates : 

**To my mind the New Testament establishes no doc- 
trine unless it satisfies every candid reader that our Lord 
gave plenipotentiary powers to Peter to govern the whole 
Church." — Page 122 

Paul's controversy with Peter at Antioch brings out 
plainly a withstanding against Peter's time serving, and 



PRIMACY OF PETER 25 

in Paul's reference to the Mother Church at Jerusalem, 
there is no supremacy of Peter recognized. 

"And when they had known the grace that was given 
to me, James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be 
pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fel- 
lowship: that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they 
unto the circumcision." ^^ 

It is of import in considering such a question as the 
supremacy of one of the apostles, that the inspired 
Scripture account should in naming pillars of the Mother 
Church, make no distinguishing feature of a Vicar of 
Christ, but, on the contrary, mention the Apostle Peter 
after James who presided at Jerusalem. 

The following statement of Paul in referring to Peter, 
indicates Peter's deference to James : 

"For before that some came from James, he did eat 
with the Gentiles, but when they were come, he withdrew 
and separated himself, fearing them who were of the 
circumcision." 

The equality in the Church of the Apostles and Dis- 
ciples is again distinctly noted by Paul. 

"For he who wrought in Peter to the apostleship of 
the circumcision, wrought in me also among the Gen- 
tiles." 31 

As among themselves, the apostles were subject one 
to another, as also they unitedly looked to the Head of 
the Church, as Paul wrote to the Colossians : 

"And he is the head of the body, the church ; who is 
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead ; that in all 
things he may hold the primacy." ^- 

Is it in any manner likely that Paul when making 
such expressions of the government of the church, would 
have made no mention, especially to churches being 

«o Gal. 2 : 9, 12. 81 Gal. i : 8. 3- Col. i : 18. 



26 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

formed, of a Vicar of Christ who had been given "pleni- 
potentiary powers to govern the whole church/' had such 
a power been given? 

Instead of having given plenipotentiary power to Peter 
or to any of His apostles "to govern the whole church/' 
we find Christ recognized by Paul as being still the 
Apostle and High Priest. 

"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly 
calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our con- 
fession, Jesus/' ^^ 

That Paul's rebuke to Peter was not such an offense 
as would have been justly considered an act of dis- 
obedience to one to whom Christ had given the governor- 
ship, with infalHble power to rule, may readily be ob- 
served when in Peter's own words we read: 

"And accounting the long suffering of our Lord's sal- 
vation, as also our most dear brother Paul, according 
to the wisdom given him hath written to you," "As also 
in all his epistles speaking in them of these things/' 
"In which are certain things hard to be understood, 
which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they 
do also the other Scriptures to their own destruc- 
tion/' 3* 

We find that it is the infallibility of the Scriptures 
that proves the fallibility of mankind, and of all church 
organizations. None are excepted save Jesus Christ, the 
Head of His own Church, who through long suffering 
offers His mercy to all. We find the Interpreter of the 
Holy Scriptures to be the Holy Spirit. 

"Now we have received, not the spirit of this world, 
but the spirit that is of God; that we may know the 
things that are given us from God. Which things also 
we speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom, 

»3 Heb. 3:1. ^^ II Peter 3 : 15, 16. 



PRIMACY OF PETER 27 

but in the doctrine of the Spirit, comparing spiritual 
things with spiritual." ^^ 

It is not enough to say that unity in common com- 
munion of all who hold to the Apostles' Creed is de- 
sirable; it is obvious from many points of view that 
such unity is becoming more and more essential to good 
government in every land. 

God's people may in their various denominations, say 
with Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration: 

*'Lord, it is good for us to be here; if thou wilt, let 
us make here three tabernacles ; one for thee, and one 
for Moses, and one for Elias."^^ 

But when the bright cloud which overshadows, and 
the Voice shall have passed, only Jesus will be seen and 
heard. 

Francis J. Hall, D.D., in his article, "The Anglican 
Position," appearing in the September, 1913, "Construc- 
tive Quarterly," defines such position in the following 
words : 

"The Anglican Church is instinctively cautious and 
patient because it aims ultimately to bring about visible 
unity among all who confess our Lord Jesus Christ as 
God and Saviour." 

This declaration, like that recently given by Arch- 
bishop Gibbons, is an encouraging sign of the working 
of the spirit of unity in the minds and hearts of eminent 
preachers and teachers, whose daily influence extends 
throughout a wide circle. 

We quote again from Dr. Hall's article : 

"But no results of historical inquiry have altered the 
validity of the Anglican assertion that apart from the 
Historic Episcopate, the organic unity of Christendom 
cannot be obtained." 

3^1 Cor. 2:12, 13. 8«Matt. 17. 



28 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

While all who devoutly desire a visible unity of 
Christ's people, may without hesitation accept the declar- 
ation that "it is part of the equipment of the Anglican 
Communion to be a church of reconciliation," it is ap- 
parent that apart from the communion of the Anglican 
Church, such visible unity is considered by Dr. Hall to 
be impossible. 

Unlike Archbishop Gibbons, w4io presents Scripture 
in support of the Roman Catholic Church's position, the 
author of ''The Anglican Position" leaves the reader to 
infer that support for the Anglican position exists as 
well in history as in the present attitude of that Church, 
and may be ascertained by scholarly investigation. 

Dr. Hall further defines the Anglican position as fol- 
lows : 

"The Anglican position summarily described is the 
ancient Catholic position guarded by a limited range of 
definitions and embodied in a working system which at 
once protects the Catholic faith and religion from sub- 
version and permits constant adjustment of the chang- 
ing conditions of human thought and life." 

Since we find that the gift above every gift is to all 
who will receive believing, and that to him who hath 
an ear may come the Gospel message, shall we not de- 
voutly believe that w^ithout making the definitions or 
working system of any particular position supreme, we 
have as Christ's children, already come a long way to- 
ward presenting to all people the Church of Christ, un- 
trammeled by any preempting supremacy. 

If we cannot with good conscience accept a doctrine 
which precludes a consideration that the Supreme Head 
of the church may, at any period in its history, establish 
a priesthood of which Melchisedick was a type, one with- 
out genealogical record, we may however be in accord 



PRIMACY OF PETER 29 

with the doctrine contained in the seventh chapter of 
Hebrews, and beHeve that there was a Man, a 

'Triest of the Most High God" (without pedigree), ^^ 
before bishops were ordained in any denomination of 
the Christian Church, and that He whom we most adore 
is after his order. 

We have in the following statement of Dr. Hall, 
an important admission from the viewpoint of a scho- 
lar: 

"The Anglican Church began its properly organized 
existence under Archbishop Theodore in the Seventh 
Century, as both Catholic and National . . . the papal 
supremacy was not then fully developed, and formal 
definitions of its scope and implications were as yet lack- 
ing: but that some kind of supremacy over the whole 
church on earth had been divinely given to Saint Peter 
and to his successors in the Roman See, was taken for 
granted by all Western Christendom, not less in Eng- 
land than elsewhere. This initial factor of acceptance 
of the Catholic faith and order in its Western form, 
with an indeterminate papal supremacy, has had, in spite 
of the rejection of the papal government in the Six- 
teenth Century, a determinate influence in the subsequent 
development of the Anglican position/' 

If we are to believe that, after seven hundred years 
of the "Vicar of Christ" in successions of authority 
over His church, there existed no formal definitions 
of the papal supremacy, what must we believe as to the 
existence or to the efficacy of such successions of suprem- 
acy? That there were no such successions of divinely 
appointed supremacy over the whole church on earth? 
Or that Christ, the Head of the Church, had left His 
Church to a supreme ruler or authority, who with his 

87 Heb. 7. 



30 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

successors had failed to impress the church with formal 
definitions of so extraordinary a charge? 

During the First Century of the Christian Church in 
which the letters of the Apostles were written for the 
edification and government of the Church, no definite 
record is given to the church of such a supremacy of 
Peter, or of any supremacy in the church, except that 
accorded by the disciples to those they chose to govern 
the churches and the natural precedence which pertained 
to those disciples who were witnesses of Christ's per- 
sonal ministr}', His first chosen disciples. 

If development of the ''Historic Episcopacy" is due 
to an "initial factor of acceptance of the Catholic faith 
in its Western form, with an indeterminable papal 
supremacy," why may there not be also other forms of 
the Catholic faith, in which there might be no indeter- 
minate papal supremacy or any succession of such 
supremacy? And if so, should the ''Historic Episco- 
pacy" become a barrier to a common communion of 
Christ's people in an organic unit of Christendom? 

If we agree that the initial factor at the beginning 
of the visible Christian Church, was the work of the 
Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds of a group of "igno- 
rant and unlearned" disciples of Christ, may we not also 
agree that the same spirit may bring into one organic 
communion in Christ all who are open to the light? 

When the Apostle John was in Patmos and saw 

*'The Bride, the Wife of the Lamb,"^^ 
the city which he saw coming down out of heaven from 
God, had therein no temple. He was told that those 
who entered in were written in the Book of Life of the 
Lamb, which writing we may all acknowledge with re- 

3S Rev. 21 : g. 



PRIMACY OF PETER 31 

joicing is a more enduring and satisfactory recording 
of our names than could be made in any temple. 

If as denominations we were long ago halted on our 
way to Damascus, when "the light from heaven shined 
round about," and we listen to the voice of Jesus, we 
may rest assured that which we left was but a shell, 
while the wings we have taken on are bringing us swiftly 
to the Holy City. 

*^And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come." ^^ 

This loving invitation is from the Holy Spirit and 
from the Church of Jesus Christ. 

Two ambassadors representing themselves to be from 
one country, each claiming supreme authority to repre- 
sent their country, would not be received. 

Can we deny the Scriptures which repeatedly inform 
us that the Holy Spirit is to guide into all truth the 
Church of Jesus Christ? 

Listen to Peter's words at Pentecost : *^ 

*'But this is that which was spoken of by the Prophet 
Joel: 'And it shall come to pass in the last days (saith 
the Lord) I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, 
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.' " 

Which supreme authority shall we accept? That of 
the Holy Spirit with credentials from every book of 
the Holy Scripture, the Prophets and Apostles, or that 
of the Pope of Rome, whose credentials are all within 
the Romish Church, none from Scriptures. 

8« Rev. 22 : 17. 40 Acts 2:16.17. 



II 

INFALLIBILITY AND SUPREMACY OF THE 
POPES 



I 



N his purpose to prove the infaUibility of the popes, 
Cardinal Gibbons has this significant passage : 



"First, The infallibility of the popes does not 
signify that they are inspired. The Apostles were en- 
dowed with the gift of inspiration and we accept their 
writing as the revealed word of God." 

*'No Catholic on the contrary claims that the pope is 
inspired, or endowed with divine revelation, properly so 
called." 

"Bear in mind also that this divine assistance is guar- 
anteed to the pope, not in his capacity as private teacher, 
but only in his official capacity, when he judges of faith 
and morals as head of the Church." 

"What then is the real doctrine of infallibility? It 
simply means that the pope as successor of St. Peter, 
Prince of the Apostles, by virtue of the promises of 
Jesus Christ, is preserved from error of judgment when 
he promulgates to the Church a decision on faith or 
morals." '- — Pages 146-9 

Thus we learn from the above quotations the claim 
is, not that the pope is inspired or endowed with divine 
revelation, properly so called, but that when he promul- 
gates to the church a decision on faith or morals, he 
is infallible. But we learn from the prayer of Jesus for 
His disciples (John 17: 14, 17, 18, 20, 21) that His prayer 
was not only for the disciples, but for all who believed 
on Him through their word, and also that they might 

32 



INFALLIBILITY OF POPES 33 

be one as He and the Father were one, that the world 
might beheve. Also that they might be one in the Father 
and the Son. Furthermore, that the Father's Word had 
been given them, *'I have given them thy word and the 
world hath hated them because they are not of the 
world/' ''Sanctify them in truth, thy word is truth." 

We further learn that His disciples were to receive the 
Holy Spirit, and that they were to be taught all truth. 

"But I tell you the truth. It is expedient to you that 
I go; for if I go not the Paraclete will not come to you; 
but if I go I will send him to you." ^ 

"But when he the Spirit of Truth is come, he will 
teach you all truth ; for he shall not speak of himself ; 
but what things soever he shall hear he shall speak, and 
the things that are to come he shall show you." 

Thus we find the pope although infallible in his deci- 
sion to the church on "faith and morals," is not claimed 
to be inspired, nor endowed with divine revelation prop- 
erly so called; while all of Christ's disciples were to re- 
ceive the Holy Spirit and be taught in all truth, and 
that even the Holy Spirit, unlike the pope, would not 
speak of Himself, but would speak of the things He 
should hear. It seems to be impossible to reconcile in 
this respect the Holy Scripture and the claim made for 
the pope, that Peter, a pope, was inspired, but no other 
popes, but all popes infallible on a decision of faith. 

That those who are one with Jesus and His Father 
throughout all ages speak that which they hear from the 
Holy Ghost, is fully proven by the Scriptures. 

"I have baptized you with water, but He shall baptize 
you with the Holy Ghost." ^ 

"Going therefore teach ye all nations, baptizing them 

i John 16 : 7 and 13. - Mark i : 8. 



34 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the 
Holy Ghost." 3 

"And unto all nations the gospel must first be 
preached. And when they shall lead you and deliver 
you up, be not thoughtful beforehand what you shall 
speak; but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, 
that speak ye; for it is not you that speak, but the 
Holy Ghost." ^ 

"But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost whom the Father 
will send in my name, He will teach you all things and 
bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have 
said to you." ^ 

"And on the last and great day of the festivity, Jesus" 
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst let him come 
to me and drink. He that believeth in me, as the 
Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of 
living water. Xow this he said of the Spirit, which they 
should receive who believed in him ; for as yet the Spirit 
Avas not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." ^ 

From Scripture then, as plain as language can present 
it, is the knowledge that the Holy Ghost represents 
and brings to all who believe in Jesus as their Saviour, 
the things of God; that the Holy Spirit is one with the 
Father and with the Son, and that they who believe 
and are His are also one with Christ, even as He is one 
with the Father. 

Surely His Reverence, Cardinal Gibbons, if he would 
have the pope of equal authority in Christendom with 
any believer in Jesus as his Saviour, must admit that 
the pope is "endowed with divine revelation properly 
so called," and if so, that when he speaks to his people 
it is not he that speaks, but the Holy Ghost the same 

3 Matt. 28 : 19. 5 John 14 : 26. 

^ Mark 13 : 10. * John 7 : 37-39- 



INFALLIBILITY OF POPES 35 

Holy Spirit that teaches all things to all who believe in 
Jesus as their Saviour. 

*'And he that keepeth His Commandments abideth in 
Him and He in him. And in this we know that He 
abideth in us by the Spirit which He hath given us." ^ 

For possible want of other Scriptural texts from 
which to fortify some of the particular tenets of the 
Roman Catholic Church which we are discussing. 
Cardinal Gibbons in his book frequently quotes the pas- 
sages from Matt. 16 and John 20; upon which passages 
we believe an unwarranted emphasis and interpretation 
have been placed in the use made of them by the Rev- 
erend Cardinal, as we find no Scripture in support of 
such use. In referring again to these passages, we also 
quote from the chapters the portion of Scripture im- 
mediately preceding and following the verses quoted 
by Cardinal Gibbons so frequently. 

''Jesus saith to them, But whom do you say that I 
am? Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, 
the Son of the Living God. And Jesus answering said 
to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: Because flesh 
and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father 
who is in heaven. And I say to thee: That thou art 
Peter: and upon this rock I will build my church, 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And 
I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. 
And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be 
bound also in heaven: And whatsoever thou shalt loose 
on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. Then he 
commanded his disciples, that they should tell no one 
that he was Jesus the Christ. From that time Jesus 
began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jeru- 
salem, and suffer many things from the ancients and 
scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the 
third day rise again. And Peter taking him, began to 

"' I John 3 : 24. 



36 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

rebuke him, saying: Lord, be it far from thee, this 
shall not be unto thee. Who turning, said to Peter: 
Go behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto me : Be- 
cause thou savourest not the things that are of God, 
but the things that are of men." ^ 

At an earlier period in his ministry, before this meet- 
ing with Peter and the other disciples, our Lord had 
said: 

*The law and the prophets were until John ; from that 
time the Kingdom of God is preached and every one 
useth violence towards it." ^ 

The people believed John the Baptist to be a prophet 
and the common people heard Jesus gladly. The Sun 
of Righteousness had risen with healing in His wings. 
All creation being awakened, the birds, the blossoms, 
the field, the brook, the sea, were all to lend their voices 
to the putting forth of the Word of Life. The blind 
were brought by a way they knew not. The lame 
walked, the lepers were cleansed, and the poor had the 
Gospel preached unto them. Now, in the closing months 
of our Lord's ministry, after the teachings of the 
Sermon on the Mount and His going about with His 
disciples, they were to be drawn closer to Him in serv- 
ice and love and eventually to receive those keys of 
the Kingdom of Heaven, which would be delivered to 
them after the tarrying at Jerusalem, and the receiving 
of the Power which was to accompany the Holy Ghost 
which after His resurrection He breathed upon them. 
The Kingdom of Heaven would be told in likeness by 
parables. The teachings of our Lord would continue 
to fit the disciples for their future work. They would 
eventually find the door of the sheepfold of which He 
has spoken. The Good Shepherd, the Pearl of Great 

8 Matt. i6: 15 to 23. ^ Luke 16: 16. 



INFALLIBILITY OF POPES tj 

Price, they would see the falling of the seed into the 
poor soil and into the good. They were to cast the 
gospel net, and all to be guided by the Holy Spirit 
whom they were to follow and with Christ Jesus who 
was to work with them. The keys which He held 
they were to use, and those keys have been used by all 
devout followers of the Lord in all ages since, and will 
be used by all of His followers in the Gospel for all ages 
to come, " 'til every knee shall bow and every tongue 
confess." 

As Simon Peter was the first to answer, he was the 
first to receive the keys which were afterward so men- 
tioned as being given to all of His disciples. 

No sooner had Peter in his exaltation realized that 
he was thus to be one of the apostles upon whose teach- 
ings of the Gospel, together with those of the prophets 
who had preceded him, the Church of our Lord was 
to be builded, than he took, at the instigation of Satan, 
to rebuking our Lord for His teaching that He was to 
suffer as our atonement. 

It was then that the revelation was made to him by 
Our Lord that whereas the Father in Heaven had re- 
vealed the Christ to him, that now his anything but in- 
fallibility had led him to accept the teachings of anti- 
Christ as he had heretofore accepted the teaching of the 
Spirit. And the rebuke of his loving Saviour when he 
was told that he savored not of the things of God, but 
of men, prepared him to meet later with a penitent heart 
the Christ who was to forgive him for his later denial. 

"And when He had said this, He shewed them His 
hands and His side. The disciples therefore were glad 
when they saw the Lord.'' *'He said therefore to them 
again. Peace be to you." "When he had said this, He 
breathed on them, and He said to them. Receive ye the 



38 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

Holy Ghost." "Whose sins you shall forgive they are 
forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain, they 
are retained." ^^ 

By these words and this act of making ambassadors 
of His disciples, Jesus did not give over His preroga- 
tive, that which is written in words w^hich will stand 
although heaven and earth pass away. 

"God hath spoken once, these two things have I heard, 
that power belongeth to God, and mercy to thee, O 
Lord. . . ."^1 

"O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our 
princes, and to our fathers that have sinned." 

"But to thee the Lord our God, mercy and forgive- 
ness, for we have departed from thee." ^^ 

"I the Lord, this is my name : I will not give my glory 
to another, nor my praise to graven things." ^^ 

To infer from the words of Jesus to Llis disciples, 
as quoted from John, Chapter 20, that He was to leave 
them and give over to them, or to Peter alone. His pre- 
rogative for forgiveness of sins, is contrary to all 
Scripture. He was ever with them. 

"Now Thomas, one of the twelve who is called 
Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came." "The 
other disciples therefore said to him: We have seen 
the Lord, But he said to them, Except I shall see in 
His hands the print of the nails and put my finger 
into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His 
side, I will not believe." 

"And after eight days again His disciples were with- 
in and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors 
being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be 
to you." "Then He said to Thomas, Put in thy finger 

1^ John 20 : 20-23. ^- Dan. 9 : 8-9. 

11 Psalm 61 : 12. is isa. 42 : 8. 



INFALLIBILITY OF POPES 39 

Jhither, and see my hands : And bring hither thy hand, 
and put it into my side : And be not faithless but behev- 
ing." Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord 
and My God/' "Jesus saith to him, Because thou hast 
seen me, Thomas, thou hast beheved. Blessed are they 
that have not seen, and have believed." ''Many other 
signs also did Jesus in the sight of His disciples which 
are not written in this book." "But these are written 
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of 
God and that believing you may have life in His 
name." ^* 

It is apparent that these words were written, not that 
centuries after the Roman Catholic Church should claim 
a special privilege of commanding the Church of Christ 
and a prerogative for the forgiveness of sins, but rather 
that "you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son 
of God, and that believing you may have life in His 
Name." 

Thomas was converted, received the Holy Ghost which 
bade him cry out, "my Lord and my God," and his sins 
upon that confession were remitted, as also were the sins 
of all who believed on the day of Pentecost. Those who 
believed not, their sins were retained both upon earth 
and in heaven, as it has ever since been, as in John 3 : 18, 
"But he that doth not believe is already judged," and 
*'he that believeth in him is not judged." 

Let us here consider the phrase, "And upon this Rock 
I will build my Church." 

In Douay Version of Holy Scripture, Deut. 32 : 3 & 4, 
we read, 

"Because I will invoke the name of the Lord, give ye 
magnificence to our God." 

"The works of God are perfect, and all his ways are 

1* John 20: 4-31. 



40 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

judgments. God is faithful and without any iniquity, 
he is just and right." 

In the 4th Verse, the name of the Lord, "The Rock/' 
is given in King James Version and left out in Douay 
Version. Notice the difference in the translation: 

"Because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe 
ye greatness to our God.'' ''He is the Rock." "His 
work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment, a God 
of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." 

— King James Version. 

Whatever the significance may be, the Hebrew w^ord 
for "Rock," Exodus 17: 6, the Rock Horeb w^hich Moses 
w'as commanded by the Lord to "strike," is not the same 
word as that for "Rock," Numbers 20:8, "The Flint 
Rock" at Kadesh, which Moses was to "speak to." The 
name "Kadesh," meaning holy, is the same w^ord as the 
Arabic name of Jerusalem. 

A study of the Hebrew word "hatzur" reveals the 
"ha" standing for the definite article "the." This article 
here used has the same meaning as in the New Testa- 
ment, where it is applied to Jesus as "the Son of God." 
The word "tzur" used for rock, refers to flint; a rock 
out of which implements with sharp edges w^ere made. 
We may therefore read the sentence, "He is the flint 
rock." 

The song contained in II Kings (II Samuel), Douay 
Version, is the same song contained in the 17th Psalm, 
Douay Version (i8th Psalm, King James Version). 

In the Douay Version, II Kings (II Samuel), 22nd 
Chapter, 2nd Verse, it reads : 

"And he said: the Lord is my rock and my strength 
and my Saviour." 

while in the Douay version of the song in the 17th Psalm, 
3rd Verse, the reading is 



INFALLIBILITY OF POPES 41 

"The Lord is my firmament, my refuge and my de- 
liverer." ^^ 

The word ''rock" as above in Douay Version, II 
Kings, 22nd Chap., 2nd Verse, is the same as in Deut. 
32 : 4th Verse of King James Version, ''tzur," flint. 

The deduction from the study of the word "hatzur" 
rock, the flint rock as the name of our Lord, is reason- 
able, made so by the following reference to His name 
given in Douay version, Deut. 8: 15, ''Who brought forth 
streams out of the hardest rock," or as in the same 
Chapter and Verse of King James Version, 

"Who brought thee forth water out of the rock of 
flint." 

We here have one reason for God's judgment upon 
Moses and Aaron, Numbers 20: 12, 

"And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because 
you have not believed me to sanctify me before the 
children of Israel, you shall not bring these people 
into the land which I will give them." 

Instead of obeying the command of God to speak 
to the rock, which symbolized their Lord as the flint 
rock. Numbers 20 : 8, Moses used the rod which was to 
be used in assembling the people to strike the rock which 
was the "hatzur," "the flint rock," the name of Deity. 

"Take the rod and assemble the people together, thou 
and Aaron thy brother, and speak to the rock before 
them, and it shall yield waters." "Moses therefore took 
the rod which was before the Lord, as he had com- 
manded him," "And having gathered together the multi- 
tude before the rock, he said to them, Hear, ye rebelHous 
and incredulous : Can we bring you forth water out of 
this rock?" 

^5 Psalms 17:3, Douay Version, reads ^'firmament" ; Psalms 
18 : 2, King James Version, reads "rock." 



42 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

"And when Moses had Hfted up his hand and struck 
the rock twice with the rod, there came forth water 
in great abundance, so that the people and their cattle 
drank." 

We desire to make the connection now with the Lord 
Jesus' words to Peter, Matt. i6: 15 to 19: 

"Jesus saith to them : But whom do ye say that I am ? 
Simon Peter answered and said : Thou art Christ the Son 
of the living God." 

"And Jesus answering said to him, Blessed art thou, 
Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood hath not re- 
vealed it to thee but my father who is in heaven." 

"And I say to thee that thou art Peter and upon this 
rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it." 

"And I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of 
Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it 
shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou 
shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed in heaven." 

It is not possible that after having been proclaimed as 
the "Rock," "The Good Shepherd," "The Door," "The 
Vine," "I am the way, the truth and the life : no man 
cometh to the Father but by me," that Our Lord and 
Saviour would have given over His name to mortal 
fallible man. Can any thoughtful person hesitate in de- 
ciding as to whom Our Lord refers as the foundation 
for His Church, when He speaks of Peter (a stone) and 
"This Roc.c"? 

Could it be otherwise than that the Peter who was 
to be joined to his Lord by a living faith, through which 
he even now recognizes the Christ, was to be one with 
his Lord as were also all who should abide in Him and 
He in them even as He was one with the Father? 

"Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot 



INFALLIBILITY OF POPES 43 

bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine, so neither 
can you except you abide in me." 

"If you abide in me and my word abide in you, you 
shall ask whatsoever you will, and it shall be done unto 
you." i« 

We learn from the Scripture that all believers are not 
fully inspired as oracles of God for the purpose those 
were to whom was committed the writing of the Holy 
Scriptures, for except in the gift to His Only Begotten 
Son, God gives by measure, but every disciple who by 
the Spirit of God speaks as the oracle of God, speaks 
infallible words, as the Scripture here says : 

"But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit." ^'^ 

"According as God hath divided to every one the 
measure of faith." ^^ 

"But to every one of us is given grace, according to 
the measure of the giving of Christ." ^^ 

"How much more will your Father from Heaven give 
the good spirit to them that ask him." ^^ 

Does not the written word of God both inspire and 
reveal, and yet no disciple of Jesus Christ named in 
Scripture calls himself "infallible." 

Shall we not then, every soul who feels the need of 
building his house upon a Rock, and not on sinking sand, 
cry out in the Holy Spirit as did David: 

"The Lord is my rock, my strength, and my 
Saviour." ^^ 

"The spirit of the Lord hath spoken by me and His 
word by my tongue." ^^ 

Seemingly with prophetic foresight, even after all the 
prophesies of Jesus Christ as the one foundation of 

i« John 15 : 4-7. 1^ Eph. 4:7. 21 u Kings 22 : 2. 

17 I Cor. 6 : 17. 20 i^xike 11 : 13. 22 n Kings 23 : 2. 

1® Romans 12 : 3. 



44 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

which no other could be laid for His Church, there is 
given by Peter himself a refutation of certain claims that 
in these later days of the world are made in his name — 
refutation like that of both prophets and apostles who 
have witnessed in Scripture, so clear as to be unmis- 
takable to sincere seekers of truth. 

*Tf so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is 
sweet." 

"Unto whom coming as to a living stone, rejected in- 
deed by men but chosen and made honorable by God." 

"Be you also as living stones, built up a spiritual 
house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, 
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." ^^ 

What is the meaning of "church" where it proposed 
that the "church" is and shall be custodian of the Holy 
Spirit who is in the Written Word of God, by faith. 
Spirit and life? The "church" that is infallible, and pro- 
poses to dictate the policy of all Christendom, or of 
believers in Christ? 

Shall we make answer by saying it is the Roman 
Catholic Church, the pope and hierarchy, a governing 
power? The pope being the Vicar of Christ? If so, 
where in such an institution do we find the church of 
the Roman Catholic Bible — His church, His body? 

"Again I say to you, that if two of you shall con- 
sent upon earth concerning anything whatsoever they 
shall ask, it shall be done to them by my Father who is 
in heaven." -* 

The above verse of Scripture was uttered by Our 
Saviour after it is claimed that Peter was made the Vicar 
of Christ, an oracle whom all were to consult. 

And there is no restriction as to the time when the 
request should be made, simply that if made with con- 

23 I Peter 2 to 5. 24 Matt. 18 : 19. 



INFALLIBILITY OF POPES 45 

sent by any two of the disciples whatsoever it might be 
that was asked, it should be done by the Father. Who 
is the oracle consulted^ here ? Peter, or the Father in 
heaven ? 

The Roman Catholic Bible thus describes the Church : 

"As Christ is the head of the Church He is the Saviour 
of His Body." 25 

"And He is the Head of the Body, the Church, Who 
is the beginning." ^^ 

Paul evidently makes the church to be the believers 
in Christ Jesus when he writes thus of his experience 
before he was himself a believer : 

"According to zeal, persecuting the church of God." 

All references to the church of Jesus Christ who was 
the Beginning, show it to be the sheep whom Peter was 
to feed, himself a part of it, as have been all pastors 
since, who have been bishops of the flock. 

Not infallible oracles, who should claim the place of 
the Holy Ghost in determining and governing the be- 
lievers in Christendom irrevocably. 

The church of Christ is made to be a body governed, 
and that primarily by Christ Flimself through the Holy 
Ghost, rather than a governing agency composed of men 
who claim to have been appointed by God to a primacy 
over the church of Christ. 

The claim that the Roman Catholic Church is infal- 
lible and that the pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth, 
falls through of its own weight, for if it were infallible, 
it would have performed an infallible part in history, 
and as a Vicar of Christ the pope would have had a 
monopoly of the things of Christ which history shows 
they have been far from having. God is one, and is not 
divided. 

25 Eph. 5 : 23. 2« Col. 1 : 18. 



46 THE RO:\L\X CATHOLIC BIBLE 

"In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us 
because He hath given us of His Spirit."-^ 

"The history of the United States with the presidents 
left out would be more intelligible than the history of 
the church to the exclusion of the vicar of Christ." 

"You cannot, my dear reader, be a loyal citizen of 
the L^nited States while you deny the constituted author- 
ity of the president." 

—Cardinal Gibbons, "Faith of Our Fathers/' 

The \'icar of Christ is recognized by all Protestant 
churches. lie is the Holy Ghost promised to be sent 
by Our Saviour when He was about to go away. The 
Vicar of Christ is not the pope of Rome. 

But what must we believe when we find the presidents 
of the L^nited States by their acts, their signed docu- 
ments as President filling pages of history, while when 
looking for some such correspczdine evidence of a Vicar 
of Christ in the ::rr: :* :. 3 t :: ? ::.e, we find no 
such constituted au:v. i: : t : :r I ::. Scripture, but 
do find definite sta: : t: :s ciitn : : : :3ut the Bible, 
of the personal gi::i : r :: His Ch ::/. : v Jesus Christ 
and by the Holy 5 : :. 

Think of the Preside:.: :: :' e L':: :ed States directing 
an official letter or 'pTCzL:.:zi^ZLzr. :: :::e citizens of tbe 
L^nited States, and making no n:e:.:::r. of his officml 
position as Chief Executive or President, yet where do 
we find in any of Peter^s preaching, a reference to his 
having been appointed by Jesus Christ His vicar on 
earth, or of any such reference on the part of any other 
writer of the New Testament? 

How can any portion of the Church of Jesus Christ 
or any body of men calling themselves the church of 

^1 John 4:13. 



INFALLIBILITY OF POPES 47 

Jesus Christ justly claim to be infallible in their own 
dogma ? 

"But you will say: The people of the United States 
prefer to be a Christian nation. Do you also claim 
them? Most certainly: for even those American 
Christians, who are unhappily severed from the Catholic 
Church, are primarily indebted for their knowedge of 
the gospel to missionaries in communion with the Holy 
See/' ... 

"Thus we see that the name of the Pope is indelibly 
marked on every page of Ecclesiastical history. The 
Sovereign Pontiff ever stands before us as commander- 
in-chief in the grand army of the church." . . . 

"You might as well shut out the light of day, and the 
air of heaven from your daily walk, as exclude the Pope 
from his legitimate sphere in the hierarchy of the 
Church.^' : — ^"Faith of our Fathers," page 142. 

How did the gospel come to those to whom Peter ad- 
dressed his first letter? 

Was it not by the accompanying Holy Ghost? 

"Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers dis- 
persed through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, 
Bithynia, Elect." 

"Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation 
of your souls." 

"Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and 
diligently searched, who prophesied of the grace to come 
to you." 

"To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves 
but to you they ministered those things that are now de- 
clared to you. By them that have preached the gospel 
to you, the Holy Ghost being sent down from heaven 
on whom the angels desire to look."^^ 

The only reference in thq New Testament to any pre- 

^s I Peter i : 9, 10, 12. 



48 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

eminent authority claimed or possessed by any person- 
age, that could be construed as a supremacy in the 
Church of Christ, by any of its members, is found in 
the third letter of the Apostle John, which letter is di- 
rected to the "dearly beloved Gaius,'' instead of to the 
church ; the reason therefor is given by the Apostle John 
as follows: 

"I had written perhaps to the church : but Diotrephes, 
who loveth to have the preeminence among them, dotH 
not receive us."^^ 

Thus we find entrenched in the early church a man 
loving preeminence, who received not the gospel of 
Christ nor the apostle himself. 

Why was the Son given to us that the government 
might be upon his shoulders? Was it Peter who was 
prophesied of, or was it He whose name should be called 
"Wonderful"? 

"For a child is born to us and a son is given to us and 
the government is upon his shoulder, and his name shall 
be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the 
Father of the World to Come, The Prince of Peace." ^^ 

"And there are three that give testimony on earth, 
The Spirit and the water and the blood." ^^ 

The Pope of Rome is not mentioned as one of the 
Three, who give testimony on earth, as the Vicar of 
Christ. 

The gospel of Jesus Christ places the Church govern- 
ment within itself. Where members are subject one to 
another, the government of the church does not require 
the pretended infallibility of men for arbitrary govern- 
ment. The infallible Christ, the Son of God, through 
His Holy Spirit, has promised to be with and to guide 

2» III John 1:9. 30 Isaiah 9 : 6. ^i i John 5 : 8. 



INFALLIBILITY OF POPES 49 

His Church. He will come to claim the Bride, the 
perfect church. Here is His word for it: 

"And if I shall go and prepare a place for you, I 
will come again, and will take you to myself ; that where 
I am you also may be." ^^ 

"Let us be glad and rejoice and give glory to Him; 
for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath 
prepared herself." ^^ 

32 John 14:2. 33 Apocalypse 19:7. 



I 



III 

INVOCATION OF SAINTS 

N his support of the doctrine of the Invocation of 
Saints as taught by the Roman CathoHc Church, 
Cardinal Gibbons thus declares himself : 



"I might easily show, by voluminous quotations from 
ecclesiastical writers of the first ages of the Church, how 
conformable to the teaching of antiquity is the Catholic 
practice of invoking the intercession of the saints. But 
as you, dear reader, may not be disposed to attach ade- 
quate importance to the writings of the Fathers, I shall 
confine myself to the testimony of Holy Scripture." 

'The venerable patriarch Jacob, when on his deathbed 
prayed thus for his two grandchildren : 'May the angel 
that delivereth me from all evils bless these boys.' Here 
we see a holy patriarch — one singularly favored by Al- 
mighty God and enlightened by many supernatural 
visions, the father of Jehovah's chosen people — asking 
the angel in heaven to obtain a blessing for his grand- 
children. And surely we cannot suppose that he would 
be so ignorant as to pray to one that could not hear 
him." —"Faith of Our Fathers," Pages 183-4. 

The Douay version from which all our Scripture refer- 
ences are taken, cites the word "dehvereth," which in 
the King James version is "redeemed." However, 
Jacob here refers to the Lord's promise given him: 

"And I will be thy keeper whithersoever thou goest 
and will bring thee back into this land, neither will I 
leave thee till I shall have accomplished all that I have 
said." 

50 



INVOCATION OF SAINTS 51 

*'And when Jacob awaked out of his sleep, he said, 
Indeed the Lord is in this place ; and I knew it not." ^ 

"And the angel of God said to me in my sleep, Jacob : 
and I answered, Here I am." ^ 

"And trembling he said. How terrible is this place, 
this is no other but the house of God and the gate of 
heaven." 

"And Jacob arising in the morning took the stone 
which he had laid under his head and set it up for a 
title, pouring oil upon the top of it." "And he called the 
name of the city Bethel, which before was called Luza." 
"And he made a vow, saying. If God shall be with me, 
and shall keep me in the way by which I walk, and shall 
give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, and I shall 
return prosperously to my father's house: The Lord 
shall be my God." ^ 

Here is plainly the Scriptural evidence that the angel 
to whom Jacob refers was none other than the Lord. 

As in Gen. 31 : 13 : 

"I am the God of Bethel, where thou didst anoint the 
stone and make a vow to me; now therefore, arise and 
go out of this land and return unto thy native coun- 
try." 

And Psalm 120: 7: 

"The Lord keepeth thee from all evil, may the Lord 
keep thy soul." 

And Gen. 28: 15 

"And I will be thy keeper whithersoever thou goest." 

Does it seem reasonable that (as in the 15th and i6th 
Verses of Genesis 48, after citing God as One who 
feedeth him), in asking His blessing he should asso- 
ciate with the source of that blessing, the blessing of 

1 Gen. 28: 15-16. 2 Gen. 31 : 11. s Gen. 28: 17-18- 19-2021. 



52 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

another? The blessing is asked only after God in three 
attitudes is invoked, namely: 

*'God in whose sight my fathers Abraham and Isaac 
walked," 

*'God that feedeth me from my youth until this 
day," 

*'the angel that delivereth me from all evils, bless these 
boys." 

The term "the angel" (if used in preference to the 
word ^'Redeemer" as in King James Version) is the vis- 
ible form of Christ before His incarnation, the special 
form in which God manifested Himself to man. 

Note the following : 

"This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel : 
A prophet shall God raise up to you of your own breth- 
ren as myself, him shall you hear. This is he, that was 
in the church in the wilderness with the angel who spoke 
to him on Mount Sina, and with our fathers : who re- 
ceived the words of life to give unto us." ^ 

"And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out 
of the midst of a bush, and he saw that the bush was on 
fire, and was not burnt." "^ 

"And behold an angel of the Lord from heaven called 
to him, saying: Abraham, Abraham; and he answered, 
Here I am. And he said to him. Lay not thy hand upon 
the boy, neither do thou anything to him, now I know 
that thou fearest God and hast not spared thy only 
begotten son for my sake." "And the angel of the Lord 
called to Abraham a second time from heaven, saying, By 
my own self have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou 
hast done this thing and hast not spared thy only begot- 
ten son for my sake : I will bless thee, and I will multiply 
thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is 

« Acts 7 : Z7-Z^. "^ Ex. 3 : 2. 



INVOCATION OF SAINTS 53 

by the sea shore; thy seed shall possess the gates of their 
enemies 



>' 8 



But Cardinal Gibbons says : 

"We read in the Gospel that Dives while suffering in 
the place of reprobates, earnestly besought Abraham to 
cool his burnmg thirst, and Abraham though then de- 
tained in Limbo, was able to listen and reply to him. 
Now if communication could exist between the souls of 
the just and of the reprobate, how much easier is it to 
suppose that interchange of thought can exist between 
the saints in heaven and their brethren on earth," 

^— Faith of Our Fathers — Page 185-6. 

But does the Scripture place Abraham in Limbo or 
purgatory or in any place at his death other than where 
God the Father, his Friend, who redeemed him, is, and 
endowed him with His own self as a reward? 

"Now when these things were done, the word of the 
Lord came to Abraham by a vision, saying, Fear not, 
Abraham, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding 
great." ^ 

"Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my pre- 
cepts and commandments, and observed my ceremonies 
and laws." ^^ 

"Therefore thus saith the Lord to the house of Jacob, 
he that redeemed Abraham, Jacob shall not now be 
confounded, neither shall his countenance now be 
ashamed." ^^ 

"But thou Israel art my servant Jacob whom I have 
chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend." ^- 

"And I say to you that many shall come from the east 
and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham and 
Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven." 

8 Gen. 22:tt-T2 and 15-16-17. 11 Isa. 20:22. 

oGen. 15: I. i-Isa. 41 : ^- 

10 Gen. 26 : 5. 



54 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

"But the children* of the Kingdom shall be cast out 
into the exterior darkness, there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth." ^^ 

"Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my 
day: He saw it, and was glad." ^* 

"Therefore they that are of faith shall be blessed with 
faithful Abraham." "And if you be Christ's, then are 
you the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the 
promise." ^^ 

Are we to learn that Abraham, to whom God gave 
Himself as a reward exceeding great, Abraham the 
friend of God, who saw by faith the day of Christ, slain 
from the foundation of the world, who was redeemed by 
Christ, needed to go into some Limbo or purgatory, while 
the thief on the cross walked with Christ in Paradise? 
Or may we not continue to believe the blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanseth from all sin and that there remaineth 
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. 

"Amen, Amen, I say unto you that he who heareth my 
word, and believeth him that sent me, hath life everlast- 
ing, and cometh not into judgment, but is passed from 
death to life." ^« 

If the God of both Heaven and earth, and who has the 
keys of hell and death, ordains any communication be- 
tween those on earth and those who have passed beyond, 
it certainly is not that they be prayed to or worshiped, 
for the Lord our God is a jealous God, to whom alone 
belongs salvation, and His glory He will not give to 
another. 

"Salvation is of the Lord, and thy blessing is upon thy 
people." ^^ 

"I the Lord, this is my name," "I will not give my 
glory to another, nor my praise to graven things." ^^ 

^^ Matt. 8 : II, 12. ^^ Qal. 3 : 9-29. ^^ Psalms 3 : 9. 

1* John 8 : 56. ^^ John 5 : 24. is Isa. 42 : 8. 



INVOCATION OF SAINTS 55 

The Reverend Cardinal says : 

"But did our Lord at any time reprove the Jews for 
their belief in a middle state, or for praying for the dead, 
a practice which to His knowledge prevailed among the 
people? Never. On the contrary, more than once both 
He and the Apostle of the Gentiles insinuate the doctrine 
of Purgatory." — "Faith of Our Fathers/' page 249. 

We fail to find in any portion of the Old Testament 
or the New, any scripture that points to a middle state of 
existence of souls between that of the rest of God's 
people and the unrest of the wicked, where the worm 
dieth not and the fire Is not quenched. If such a place 
exists. Scripture does not lift the veil, nor do we find any 
authority for offering prayer for the dead, in any prayer, 
or suggestions from any Patriarch or Prophet of the 
Old Testament, or from Our Saviour or any of His 
apostles or disciples in the New Testament. 

As to any or all traditions that may have furnished 
church dogma for the Hebrew people, if such be, we 
know that the Saviour rebuked the Pharisees in these 
words : 

"But he answering said to them. Well did Isaias 
prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people 
honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from 
me." 

"And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines 
and precepts of men." "Making void the word of God 
by your own tradition, which you have given forth, 
And many other such like things you do." ^® 

We cannot but feel that as the Written Word contains 
many allusions to every doctrine taught by the Holy 
Spirit, and as it does not make mention of those in which 

i» Mark 7 : 6, 7 and 13. 



56 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

the Romish Church finds its authority for such tradi- 
tions and church dogma, it is evident that such dogma 
did not find a place in the plans of the apostles for 
preaching the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified. 

As to ''insinuating" any doctrine on the part of Jesus 
and the Apostle Paul or the other disciples, the simple, 
direct teachings of Christ preclude such an idea. It was 
yea and nay with Him in His teachings, and the same 
with His apostles who spoke with His Spirit. 

The Saviour in rebuking those who asked why was the 
waste of the ointment when Jesus was anointed in the 
house of Simon the leper, said : 

"Amen, I say to you wheresoever this gospel shall be 
preached in the whole world, that also which she hath 
done, shall be told for a memorial of her/' ^^ 

This would not have been spoken unless the Saviour 
had known what would and what would not be written, 
and this memorial was to be written among the many 
things which Jesus did. 

"But there are also many other things which Jesus 
did, which if they were written every one, the world 
itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that 
should be written.'' ^^ 

We are reminded also that there was a safeguarding of 
the Apocalypse by Jesus in its closing verses : 

"For I testify to every one that heareth the words of 
the prophecy of this book : If any man shall add to these 
things, God shall add unto him the plagues written in 
this book." "And if any man shall take away from the 
words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away 
his part out of the book of life, and out of the Holy City 
and from these things that are written in this book." ^^ 

Should we not therefore question closely, any and all 

20 Mark 14 : 9. 21 John 21 : 25. 22 Rev. 22 : 18-19. 



INVOCATION OF SAINTS 57 

traditions, or tenets of men, not founded on the Written 
Word, and where such confliction with the Written 
Word exists, can there be any question as to whether 
they or the Written Word should be held to? Is there 
not a danger line to be avoided lest we teach doctrines or 
tenets above that which is written? 

"But these things. Brethren, I have in a figure trans- 
ferred to myself, and to Apollo for your sakes, that in 
us you may learn that one be not puffed up against the 
other for another, above that which is written." ^^ 

Cardinal Gibbons in his book makes this statement : 

"When Our Saviour the founder of the new law ap- 
peared on earth, He came to lop off those excrescences 
which had grown on the body of the Jewish Ecclesiastical 
Code, and to purify the Jewish Church from those human 
traditions which in the course of time, became like chaff 
mixed with the wheat of sound doctrine." 

— Page 249 

That which Our Saviour came to do was that which He 
did, as written in Revelations (Apocalypse) 21:5: 

*'And he that sat on the throne said: Behold I make 
all things new: And he said to me, Write: for these 
things are most faithful and true." 

And also the Apostle Paul wrote : 

"If then any be in Christ a new creature, the old things 
are passed away, Behold all things are made new." ^* 

The old was fulfilled in the new. 

"Now in saying a new, he hath made the former old. 
And that which decayeth and groweth old is near its 
end." 26 

May not the words last quoted from Cardinal Gibbons 
apply as well, and even more properly, to all creeds hold- 
ing belief in the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Resur- 

23 I Cor. 4:6. 24 n Cor. 5 : i7- " Heb. 8 : 13. 



58 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

rection? And may there not be those in ever}' land and 
under every creed who could profit by the Saviour's quo- 
tation from Isaias? 

''This people honoreth me with their lips, but their 
heart is far from me." ''And in vain do they worship 
me teaching doctrines and commandments of men."^^ 

And if so, why need the Romish Church be any excep- 
tion to the rule where Church dogma takes the place of 
Scripture, or when it prevails over that which is revealed 
to man in the Holy Scripture? 

"For all the law is fulfilled in one word, Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself.'*' "But if you bite and de- 
vour one another, take heed you be not condemned one 
of another." -■ 

"He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is 
charity." 

"^Nly dearest, if God hath so loved us, we also ought 
to love one another." -^ 

With the invitation given by the Holy Spirit in the 
Psalms of David to pour out our hearts before God, the 
invitation of His Son who so loved us that he died for 
us, to come unto Him, to ask and receive, is it any won- 
der that Protestants are taught from their childhood to 
seek God in prayer rather than His saints? 

"Trust in him, all ye congregation of people. Pour 
out your hearts before him. God is our helper for- 
ever." 29 

"Come to me, all ye that labor and are burdened, and 
I will refresh you.'^ 

"All things are delivered to me by my Father." ^° 

"Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and you shall 

find; knock, and it shall be opened to you." 

26 Matt. 15 : 8, 9- -^ Psalms 6i : g. 

2" Gal. 5 : 14. 15. so Matt. 11 : 28, 27, 

2SI John 4:8 and 11. 



INVOCATION OF SAINTS 59 

"For every one that asketh receiveth." ^^ 

Why Cardinal Gibbons under the head of "Invocation 
of Saints," makes frequent allusion to prayer for others, 
is not explained. That is in such common usage as to 
be a tenet of all Christian people who love and pray. 

We have thus elaborated an answer by Scriptural 
passages from the Douay Version of the Bible, to the 
only strictly Scriptural reference made by Cardinal Gib- 
bons in support of the "Invocation of Saints." 

However often our thoughts may go out to our loved 
ones in Heaven, there is no suggestion in Scripture that 
we should pray to them. The directing of prayer to man 
must necessarily detract from our proper attitude in 
prayer to God, by reason of our lack of faith in Him as 
supreme and all sufficient 

When the disciples asked Our Lord to teach them to 
pray, their request implied as much whom to pray to as 
what manner of prayer to make. 

When Our Lord answered them it was "When ye 
pray, say, Father, hallowed be thy name." Those words 
included every person in the Trinity, Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost. Neither man nor woman is included. 

31 Luke 11:9-10. 



I 



IV 

THE WORSHIP OF MARY, AND THE 
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 

N chapter fourteen of Cardinal Gibbons' book, 'The 
Faith of Our Fathers," a heading of the chapter 
reads as follows : 



*Ts it lawful to honor the blessed Virgin j\Iary as a 
Saint : to invoke her as an intercessor and to imitate her 
as a model ?'' 

—Page 195 

'To invoke her as an intercessor" is the only clause to 
which reply is here made ; a reply to the other two ques- 
tions asked in the caption would of course be in the 
affirmation of all believers. That Mary was blessed 
among women as bringing into the world the incarnate 
Son of God is now and always has been asserted by all 
Evangelical Protestant Churches, as well as Roman Cath- 
olic Churches, according to the Scripture, 

"And the angel being come in said unto her, Hail full 
of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among 
women." ^ 

We now quote from Cardinal Gibbons' book, "The 
Faith of Our Fathers" in reference to worshiping 
Mary : — 

"Mary is exalted above all other women, not only be- 
cause she united a mother's love with maiden purity, but 
also because she was conceived without original sin. The 
dogma of the Immaculate Conception is thus expressed 

^ Luke 1 : 28, 

60 



THE WORSHIP OF MARY 6i 

by the Church. We define that the Blessed Virgin Mary 
in the first moment of her conception, by the singular 
grace and privilege of Almighty God, in virtue of the 
merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, 
was preserved free from every stain of original sin." 

"Unlike the rest of the children of Adam, the soul of 
Mary was never subject to sin even in the first moment 
of its infusion into the body. She alone was exempt 
from the original taint. This immunity of Mary from 
original sin is exclusively due to the merits of Christ as 
the Church expressly declares. She needed a Redeemer 
as well as the rest of the human race and therefore was 
redeemed, but in a more sublime manner. Mary is as 
much indebted to the precious blood of Jesus for having 
been preserved, as we are for having been cleansed from 
original sin." 

— Pages 204-5 

Here Cardinal Gibbons presents in support of the 
above dogma of the Romish Church : 

"I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and 
thy seed and her seed. She shall crush thy head and 
thou shalt He in wait for her heel." ^ 

King James and also later revised versions both read : 

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman 
and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy 
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." 

From the above Cardinal Gibbons argues that 

"Now the enmity of Christ or the seed toward the evil 
one was absolute and perpetual, therefore, the enmity of 
Mary, or the woman, toward the devil never admitted of 
any momentary reconciliation which would have existed 
if she was ever subject to original sin." 

"But if she (Mary) had been created in original sin 
instead of being superior, she would be inferior to Eve 
who was certainly created immaculate." 

— Pages 205-6 
^ -Gen. 3: 15. 



62 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

The Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, 

says: 

"The first man was of the earth earthly; the second 
man from heaven heavenly/' 

''Therefore as we have borne the image of the earthly- 
let us bear also the image of the heavenly." 

"Now this I say, brethren, that fiesh and blood cannot 
possess the Kingdom of God, neither shall corruption 
possess incorruption/' ^ 

There is no exception to Eve or Mary given here, nor 
can there be any if the Scripture is to be adhered to, as 
also in Gal. 3 : 18-24 

"For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of 
promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Why 
then was the law? It was set because of transgressions 
until the seed should come to whom he made the promise, 
being ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. 
Now a mediator is not of one; but God is one. Was the 
law then against the promises of God? God forbid. 
For if there had been a law given which could give life, 
verily justice should have been by the law. But the 
Scriptures hath concluded all under sin, that the promise, 
by the faith of Jesus Christ, might be given to them that 
believe. But before the faith came, we were kept under 
the law shut up, unto that faith which was to be revealed. 
Wherefore the law was our pedagogue in Christ, that we 
might be justified by faith." ^ 

"But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent 
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. That 
he might redeem them who were under the law: that 
we might receive the adoption of sons." ^ 

The Apostle John recognizing these truths regarding 
created man, says : 

3 1 Cor. 15 : 47-SOo * Gal. 3 : 18-24. 5 Gal. 4 : 4- 



THE WORSHIP OF MARY 63 

"If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and 
the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, we 
make him a liar and his word is not in us." ® 

But here is the testimony of Mary : 

"And Mary said : My soul doth magnify the Lord." ^ 

The angel who announced to Mary the coming birth 
of Jesus, said: 

"Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee : blessed art 
thou among women." ^ 

Had such an unnatural condition existed as that Mary 
the mother of Our Saviour had been born of a father and 
mother with a miraculous, supernatural intervention of 
God, separating her kind and nature from that of all 
other women, she would not have been of the human 
race nor have been the Mary "blessed among women" 
for she would not have been among women, but a 
divinely appointed being of another kind. Nor would 
Jesus, who knew no sin, have been "made sin" by bear- 
ing. Himself without sin, a form different in no respect 
from that of the first Adam. 

"But now in Christ Jesus, you, who sometime were 
afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ." 

"For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and 
breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmities 
in his flesh." 

"Making void the law of commandments contained in 
decrees ; that he might make the two in himself into one 
new man, making peace. And might reconcile both to 
God in one body by the cross, killing the enmities in 
himself." « 

Could any supernatural personage have added to the 
perfected scene at Calvary? — The Son of God upon the 

« I John 1 : 8, 10. « T.uke i : 28. 

'^ Luke 1 : 46. ^ Eph. 2 : 13-16. 



64 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

cross bearing the burden of our common humanity. — At 
the foot of the cross, His mother, Mary of Cleophas, and 
Mary Magdalene, and the disciple whom Jesus loved. 
This little group standing nearby while the suffering 
Saviour upon the cross drew our humanity into His own 
person, mindful still of the faithful mother who had 
brought Him into the world and those who had followed 
Him so closely in His ministry. May it not be that only 
to the Father Himself is known all that was wrought 
when Jesus said upon the Cross, *'It is finished." ? 

"For Jesus is not entered into the holies made with 
hands, the patterns of the true; but into heaven itself, 
that he may appear now in the presence of God for 
us." i« 

Christ appears for us. Nowhere Mary or any other 
saint; our prayer should be directed to "Our Father who 
art in Heaven." 

"Jesus answered and said to him (Nicodemus), Amen, 
Amen, I say to thee unless a man be born again, he can- 
not see the Kingdom of God." ^^ 

No exception is here made to Mary the mother of 
our Lord. 

"The first man Adam was made into a living soul. 
The last Adam into a quickening spirit." 

"Yet that was not first which is spiritual, but that 
which is natural : afterward that which is spiritual." 

"The first man was of the earth earthly, the second 
man from heaven heavenly." ^^ 

No exception is here made to Mary the mother of our 
Lord. 

"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the 
remission of sins;" 

10 Heb. 9 : 24. 11 John 3:3. 12 1 Cor. 15 : 45-47. 



THE WORSHIP OF MARY 65 

"Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-bom 
of every creature ?'' ^^ 

The Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus the Son of the 
Most High, as the angel announced that she would. The 
conception and the birth were by the Holy Ghost, who 
should come upon her, and the power of the Most High, 
which should overshadow her. 

Such was the birth of the Son of God, the Son of 
Man. The Word made flesh. Jesus the Christ. The 
Only Begotten of the Father. 

This was the new thing in the earth spoken by the 
Prophet Jeremiah. All other sons which had been born 
were sons of descendants of Adam and Eve. 

This holy, this second Adam, was a quickening Spirit 
from Heaven and was called by the angel who spoke 
of His birth to Mary, The "Son of God," He is the 
Incarnation, The Atonement, sent by the Father. 

Thus Mary was not the mother of Jesus by exactly 
the same course of events that mothers had conceived 
and borne sons heretofore. Therefore Jesus was justi- 
fied in saying to her in those majestic words, 

"Woman, What is that to me and to thee? My hour 
is not yet come." ^* 

"He saith to his mother. Woman, behold thy son." 

"After that he saith to the disciple. Behold thy 
mother." ^^ 

Thus Mary who had filled the mission that made her 
forever blessed among women, was now the mother of 
John. 



^t5 



"Style her if you will the mother of the Man Jesus, or 
even of the human nature of the Son of God, but not 
the mother of God." 

13 Col. 1 : 14-15. ^* John 2:4. i^ John 19 : 26-27. 



66 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

''I shall answer this objection by putting a question. 
Did the mother who bore us have any part in the pro- 
duction of our soul? Was not this nobler part of our 
being the work of God alone ? And yet who would for 
a moment dream of saying, The mother of my body' 
and not 'my mother/ " 

r— Faith of Our Fathers, Pages igg-200. 

His Reverence seems to have forgotten the Scriptural 
distinction between that which pertains to the natural 
person of man and that which pertains to the Person 
of God. 

We give here by calling attention to the Douay Version 
of Scripture, the Roman Catholic Bible authority, 

'The first Adam was made into a living soul. The 
last Adam into a quickening spirit." ^^ 

Thus the Virgin ilary gave birth to the soul and body 
Df Jesus. The Quickening Spirit was that of the Son of 
God from Heaven. Thus was there born of !Mary 'The 
Son of God," who is "the First and Last," 'The Alpha 
and Omega," 'The Word made flesh." The human 
mind alone may never comprehend this birth. It was 
not the work of man, but of the "power of the Almighty 
that over-shadowed" the virgin. 

Let us worship therefore 

"The Beginning and the End, the Lord God, who is, 
who was, and who is to come, the Almight}'." ^' 

A mother imparts all she has to her offspring, both 
of soul and body. ^Mary could have Deity only by faith. 
To supply this deficiency, the Holy Ghost came upon her, 
and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, 
that the Son of God might be born of -Mar}% and the 
Scripture be fulfilled, and His Name was to be called 
Jesus. 

i«I Cor. 15:45. 17 Apocalypse 1:8. 



THE WORSHIP OF MARY 67 

'Tor a child is bom to us and a son is given to us, 
and the government is upon his shoulders." ^^ 

You will notice that in this prophecy it is a child that 
is born, while a Son is given. 

"For God so loved the world as to give his only be- 
gotten son, that whosoever believeth in him may not 
perish, but may have everlasting life." ^^ 

Mary is never called the ''Mother of God" in Scrip- 
ture. They who so call her speak "above that which is 
written"; God the "Beginning" had no mother. 

In being the mother of Jesus, Mary was not to be 
worshiped, only God the Father, the Son and Holy 
Ghost; Three in One is to be worshiped. For the 
"Holy," the Son of God, is to become subject to the 
Father. 

Here is what the man Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, 
tells us was wrought in Jesus when the Power of the 
Most High overshadowed the virgin Mary. 

"But now in Christ Jesus, you who sometime were 
afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." 

"For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and 
breaking down the middle wall of partition the enmities 
in his flesh." 

"Making void the law of commandments contained in 
decrees : that he might make the two in himself into one 
new man, making peace." 

"And might reconcile both to God, in one body by the 
cross, killing the enmities in himself." ^^ 

"Afterward the end when he shall have delivered up 
the kingdom to God and the Father, when he shall 
have brought to naught all principality, power and 
virtue." 

"And when all things shall be subdued unto Him then 
i^Isa. 9:6. 10 John 3:16. 20 Eph. 2:13, 14, 15, 16. 



68 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

the Son also Himself shall be subject unto Him who put 
all things under Him, that God may be all in all." ^^ 

"And I fell down before his feet to adore him, and he 
said to me. See thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant 
and of thy brethren who have the testimony of Jesus 
adore God." ^^ 

"And prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve 
him only." ^^ 

"When we call the blessed virgin the Mother of God 
we assert our belief in two things. First that her Son 
Jesus Christ is true man else she were not a mother. 
Second that he is true God else she were not the mother 
of God. In other words, we affirm that the second per- 
son of the Blessed Trinity, the Word of God, who is his 
divine nature, is from all eternity begotten of the 
Father. Consubstantial with Him was in the fullness 
of time again begotten by being born of the Virgin, thus 
taking to himself from her maternal womb, a human 
nature of the same substance with hers." 

— Faith of Our Fathers, Page 199 

His Reverence becomes doubly unfortunate in this 
attempt to enforce the assertion that "Mary is the Mother 
of God"; first, by asserting the truth that "Jesus Christ 
is very man, else she were not a mother," he proves the 
reverse by the same principle, namely, that Mary was 
very woman, and not as in another place as discussed in 
the beginning of this chapter, where he asserts that the 
Virgin Mary "was in the first moment of her conception" 
"preserved free from every stain of original sin." 

The reason for Jesus Christ being born without sin, 
was not that Mary was other than very woman, but 
because of being conceived by the Holy Ghost, He was 
without sin. And we who are sinners, believing on Him 
become one with Him. 

21 1 Cor. 15 : 24-28. 22 Apocalypse 19 : 16. 23 j Kings 7 : 3. 



THE WORSHIP OF MARY 69 

"And you know that he appeared to take away our 
sins, and in Him there is no sin." 

"Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not/' 

"Whosoever is born of God committeth not sin, for 
His seed abideth in him and he cannot sin, because he is 
born of God." ^^ 

"Jesus answered and said to him, Amen, Amen, I say 
to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the 
Kingdom of God." ^^ 

Thus by the Roman Catholic Bible, we find the Roman 
Catholic Church doctrine of the Immaculate Conception 
of Mary relegated to its proper place as dogma of that 
church and not to be found in Holy Scripture or in any 
way authorized by it, but the contrary proven by the 
Written Word. 

And all who have entertained such conceptions of the 
blessed Virgin Mary can afford to discard them for the 
association afforded by her Son Jesus the Son of God, 
with Himself, as follows : 

"And now I am not in the world, and these are in the 
world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in 
thy name whom thou hast given me, that they may be 
one, as we also are." 

"And not for them only do I pray, but for them also 
who through their word shall believe in me." 

"That they all may be one, as Thou, Father in me, and 
I in Thee, That they also may be one in us. That the 
world may believe that Thou hast sent me." ^^ 

Secondly, referring again to Cardinal Gibbons' state- 
ment regarding the birth of our Saviour, that Jesus was 
true man, we then naturally look for true human mater- 
nity in the birth of Jesus, and can find only that in 
Mary. 

2* I John 3 : 5-6-9. ''^^ John 3 : 3. -^ John 17 : ii, 20, 21. 



70 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

Mary the mother of Jesus? Yes, the expression is 
harmonious and accords with Scripture. 

"Mary the mother of God V No, it is out of keeping 
with the personages of each, and has no Scriptural 
basis whatever; God, and the "Word" who was made 
flesh, the Son, were in the beginning; no mother is pos- 
sible. That "Holy" who was born of Mary, was to be 
called "the Son of God." 

Mary herself was given the spirit to understand her 
true part in bringing into the world the new man, Jesus 
the Christ, to know in what relation the blessing of God 
was thus bestowed upon her; in her humility, her low 
estate. 

"And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord." 

"And my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Saviour." 

"Because he hath regarded the humility of his hand- 
maid: For behold from henceforth all generations shall 
call me blessed." ^^ 

The prophecy of Jeremiah made six hundred years 
before, was thus fulfilled. It was a Man who was com- 
passed by a woman. It was the New Man whom Mary 
brought forth: 

"For the Lord hath created a new thing upon the 
earth." 

"A woman shall compass a man." ^^ 

27 Luke 1 : 46, 47, 48. 28 Jeremiah 31 : 22. 



u 



y 

THE HOLY EUCHARIST 

NDER the title 'The Holy Eucharist," Cardinal 
Gibbons says: 



"But why multiply authorities? At the present 
day, every Christian communion throughout the world, 
with the sole exception of Protestants, proclaims its 
belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacra- 
ment." — Page 340 

We give the following Scriptural authority from 
Matthew, Mark and Luke : 

"And whilst they were at supper Jesus took bread and 
blessed and broke, and gave to his disciples and said, 
Take ye and eat, this is my body. And taking the 
chalice, he gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink 
ye all of this. For this is my blood of the New Testa- 
ment which shall be shed for many unto remission of 
sins. And I say to you I will not drink from henceforth 
of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink 
it with you anew in the Kingdom of my father." ^ 

"And whilst they were eating, Jesus took bread, and 

blessing, broke and gave to them and said: Take ye, 

this is my body. And having taken the chalice, giving 

thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And 

he said to them : This is my blood of the New Testament, 

which shall be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, that 

I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that 

day when I shall drink it new in the kingdom of God." - 

1 Matt. 26 : 26, 27, 28, 20. 2 Mark 14 : 22-25. 

71 



J2. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

''And having taken the chaHce, he gave thanks and 
said, Take and divide it among you. For I say to you 
that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine till the 
kingdom of God come. And taking bread he gave 
thanks, and brake and gave to them, saying, This is my 
body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemora- 
tion of me. In like manner the chalice also. After he 
had supped, saying, This is the chalice, the New Testa- 
ment in my blood which shall be shed for you.'' ^ 

"Behold I stand at the gate and knock. If any man 
shall hear my voice and open to me the door, I will come 
in to him and will sup with him and he with me.'' * 

Under this title ("The Holy Eucharist") Cardinal 
Gibbons would show that where the Saviour spoke of the 
bread and Vv'ine in the communion as given by ]\Iatthew, 
Mark and Luke above, He spoke of a literal body and 
blood ; that in other instances in speaking of His Body 
and His Blood, he explained that a literal construction 
was not to be put upon the words. His Reverence then 
quotes from John, 6 : 53, as follows : — 

''How can this man give us his flesh to eat ?" 
and says : 

"Even his disciples though avoiding the disrespectful 
language of the multitude gave expression to their doubt 
in this milder form 'This saying is hard and who can 
hear it.' (John 6:61.) So much were they shocked at 
our Saviour's promise, that 'after this many of his dis- 
ciples went back and walked no more with him.' (John 
6: 67)" —Page 330 

Quoting Cardinal Gibbons : — 

"They evidently implied by their words and conduct 
that they understood Jesus to have spoken literally of 
His flesh; for had they interpreted His words in a figur- 

3 Luke 22 : 17, 18, 19, 20. ^ Rev. 3 : 20. 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST 73 

ative sense, it; would not have been a hard saying, nor 
have led them to abandon their Master." 

*'But perhaps 1 shall be told that the disciples and the 
Jews who heard Our Saviour may have misinterpreted 
His meaning by taking His words in the literal accepta- 
tion, while He may have spoken in a figurative sense. 
This objection is easily disposed of. It sometimes hap- 
pened, indeed, that Our Saviour was misunderstood by 
His hearers. On such occasions He always took care 
to remove from their mind the wrong impression they 
had formed, by stating His meaning in simpler language. 
But in the present instance does Our Saviour alter His 
language when He finds His words taken in the literal 
sense? Does He tell His hearers that He has spoken 
figuratively? Does He soften the tone of His expres- 
sion? Far from weakening the force of His words. He 
repeats what He said before and in language more em- 
phatic: 'Amen, Amen, I say unto you, unless ye eat the 
flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye shall 
not have life in you.' " 

—Pages 330-1 

His Reverence appears to have overlooked that which 
he avers the Saviour did not do, namely, ''alter His lan- 
guage." He does do so in the following verses, which 
interpretation of the meaning of His words is perfect in 
the simplicity of its teaching: 

"But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples mur- 
mured at this, said to them: Doth this scandalize you? 
If then you shall see the son of man ascend up where he 
was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh 
profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken to you 
are spirit and life." ^* 

It is evident from Our Saviour's words that it is the 
body and blood of Christ spiritually discerned through 
the word spoken, and not the literal flesh that profiteth. 
Where can we find hope of man's resurrection if we fail 

^ John 6 : 62-64. 



74 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

to discern that it was the flesh and blood of the Son of 
Man, the Son of Mary, that lay in the tomb of Joseph, 
while Our Saviour, the Word made flesh, was walking 
in Paradise with the robber who died beside Him? 

"Who are born not of blood nor of the will of the 
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." ® 

Did He not say, 

*'Amen, Amen, I say unto you, he that believeth in me 
hath everlasting life. I am the bread of life."?'^ 

It was indeed His flesh they were to eat and His blood 
they were to drink. It was the Word made flesh, not 
mere flesh. 

"He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath 
everlasting life : and I will raise him up in the last day." ^ 

It was His body which came from above, and not the 
temple of His body only, as Jesus made plain when 
speaking of His resurrection. 

"Jesus answered and said to them: Destroy this tem- 
ple, and in three days I will raise it up." 

"The Jews then said: Six and forty years was this 
temple in building: and wilt thou ra'ise it up in three 
days?" 

"But he spoke of the temple of his body." ® 

"Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith: 
Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldst not : but a body thou 
hast fitted to me." ^« 

Does not Scripture thus present that it is the spiritual 
body of Christ, the Word made flesh, discerned by grace, 
through faith given us, by which we possess eternal life? 

"The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not 
the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread, 
which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of 

« John 1:13. 8 John 6 : 55- ^^ Heb. 10 : 5. 

"^John 6:47, 48. »John 2:19, 20, 21. 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST 75 

the Lord? For we, being many, are one bread, one 
body, all that partake of one bread." ^^ 

Since then we who commune are one body, how can 
it be otherwise than that we were one with that Body, 
Christ Jesus, before we communed? Is it not then in 
commemoration, a remembrance of Him, that we unite 
when we partake of the wheat-made bread and the fruit 
of the vine, representing the body and the blood of our 
Lord, with whom we have already been made one? 

**And all drank the same spiritual drink (and they 
drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the 
rock was Christ)." ^^ 

And this Rock is the Body of Christ, of which we who 
believe on Him are one and of His body, which is the 
Church. 

"For in one spirit were we all baptized into one body, 
whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bound or free, and in 
one spirit we have all been made to drink." ^^ 

It is not what we do at the Communion table that 
justifies us, but rather faith in what Our Lord does for 
us, namely, the efficacy of His body and His blood, which 
we commemorate with the bread and wine. Redeemed be- 
fore the foundation of the world : Before the manifes- 
tation of Christ crucified upon the Cross of Calvary, 
the Lamb was slain. 

**Foreknown indeed before the foundation of the 
world, but manifested in the last times for you." ^^ 

"Written in the book of life of the Lamb which was 
slain from the beginning of the world." ^^ 

May we not then in good conscience accept the com- 
memoration of Our Lord's death till He come as a form, 
the bread as His Body, the wine as His blood, as we also 

^^I Cor. 10:16, 17. 1*^1 Cor. 12:13. ^^ Apocalypse 13:8. 

"I Cor. 10:4. "I Peter i: jo. 



^6 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

receive baptism in a form, and rest in faith as being the 
evidence and substance thereof? 

*'Which had been some time incredulous when they 
waited for the patience of God in the days of Noe, when 
the ark was a building wherein a few, that is eight, souls 
were saved by water." 

"Whereunto baptism being of the like form, now 
saveth you also, not the putting away of the filth of the 
flesh, but the examination of a good conscience toward 
God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." ^^ 

"Now faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, 
the evidence of things that appear not." ^^ 

It is written: 

"He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath 
everlasting life, and I will raise him up in the last day." ^^ 

It is nowhere written in Scripture that by partaking 
of bread and wine in remembrance of Him, we have 
eternal life. 

Was it not the spiritual being of Christ who walked in 
Paradise on the day of His crucifixion that quickened 
and brought back to life the Son of Mary, the Son of 
Man, on the third day? 

Was it not likewise the same spiritual body of Christ, 
the Word made flesh that also was broken for us, and 
will raise our mortal bodies at the last day ? 

Was it not then the spiritual discerning of the body of 
Christ in the bread and in the wine as well, as that of 
the elements of a body that required the Spiritual Being 
of Christ to raise it from the dead? 

"And Jesus crying with a loud voice said : Father into 
thy hands I commend my spirit. And saying this he 
gave up the spirit." ^^ 

i« I Peter 3 : 20, 21. is John 6 : 55. 

17 Heb. II : I. i^ Luke 23 : 46. 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST ^J 

It is to be noted that in the Gospels of Matthew, 
Mark and Luke, later {after the partaking) in referring 
to this, His Last Supper with His disciples, He speaks 
of the *'fruit of the vine," which He had here used as 
a symbol of His blood. He also plainly directs: ''Do 
this in remembrance of me." 

No supernatural injection of His body and blood into 
bread and wine was necessary in order that His disciples 
whom He had chosen, and would never leave, should 
have a part in Him. 

"That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts; that 
being rooted and founded in charity," ''You may be able 
to comprehend with all, the saints what is the breadth 
and length and heighth and depth." 

"To know also the charity of Christ which surpasseth 
all knowledge, that you may be filled with all the full- 
ness of God." -^ 

The bread and wine would take the course of nature. 
"The Spirit which quickeneth" and the "words which I 
speak unto you they are Spirit and life," had made and 
were to make a part in Him of all who believe. 

Since the word of God is true, it is therefore evident 
that this commemoration of His death until He come, 
was His broken body imparted through faith in Him, to 
each of His churches that all might be one in Him, and 
any literal construction of the bread and wine used 
other than as a symbol, must partake of ecclesiastical 
dogma, rather than of the Holy Scripture. 

"For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink 
the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord till 
he come." "^ 

In these words to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul 
states that it was "shewing" the death of the Lord, and 

20 Eph. 3 : 17, 18, 19. -1 I Cor : 1 1 : 26. 



78 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

as in other verses in the same Chapter, that the Com- 
munion was Hkewise a "commemoration." 

In the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, 
Verses 22 and 23, we are told : 

"And he hath subjected all things under his feet, and 
hath made him head over all the church." "Which is 
his body, and the fullness of him who is filled all in 
all." 

His body being the Church itself, does it not appear 
that in the breaking of the bread and the giving of the 
wine His body broken, His blood shed, in remembrance 
of Him there was to be a commemoration of the Lord's 
death till He come? 

But it may be said: What harm is there in believing 
that the bread and the wine taken at Communion con- 
tain in physical substance the body and blood of Christ? 

This is the error of holding to such a doctrine. 

It is the "believing on Him," the Redeemer of Man, 
which makes the union of God with man, the eternal life. 

If the bread and wine are presented as the media by 
which man comes to God, then place is given to a 
medium in the hands of men ; an ecclesiastical body : the 
Spirit who giveth life is thus not discerned as the life- 
giving One who is never under the control of men. 

"Nicodemus saith to him: How can a man be born 
when he is old?" 

"The Spirit breatheth where he will : and thou hearest 
his voice, but thou knowest not whence he cometh and 
whither he goeth, so is every one that is born of the 
spirit." 22 

Nicodemus made a like mistake of taking the letter 
instead of the spirit contained in the words of Christ, 
and was answered by Our Saviour as above. 

22 John 3 : 4 and 8. 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST ^^ 

Must not every tenet of any or every church organi- 
zation, and any church dogma at variance with the Holy 
Scripture, eventually give way to the written word of 
God? 

It becomes us to stand in awe when considering the 
wonderful mystery of the incarnation. The Word 
made flesh, wherein lies the life-giving power of the 
Holy Spirit who takes of the things of Christ and gives 
them unto His loved ones. 

But need there be such mystery in the simple par- 
taking of the bread and wine wherein through faith we 
discern His body and His blood, shewing forth the 
Lord's death till He come? 

May we not recall that the Lamb was slain from the 
foundation of the world and that our names were writ- 
ten in the Book of Life from the foundation of the 
world, before we partook of the bread and wine in re- 
membrance of Him? So that our eternal life comes not 
merely from eating the bread and drinking the wine in 
remembrance of Him, but from our discerning therein 
the body and blood of the "Lamb of God." 

May we not believe that in the sublime truth of the 
bread and the wine in relation to eternal life, and our 
abiding in Him and He in us, that in saying, 

"For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink 
indeed," -^ that Our Lord was conveying the sublime 
truth that by His incarnation He became life eternal 
and One with every soul who believed on Him. 

If by a miracle an actual substance of His body and 
blood were in the wheat and the fruit of the vine, would 
it avail anything to one who believed not? And if His 
actual body and blood were in these elements, why would 
it ever be needful to partake more than once to have 

23 John 6 : 56. 



8o THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

eternally the eternal life and His presence in us? But 
if the bread and the wine are symbols of His incarna- 
tion, the giving of the "word made flesh for us," then by 
faith as often as we do this in remembrance of Him, we 
are reminded of the body broken and the blood shed for 
us, and of the eternal life and the abiding in us of the 
Son of God. Judas partook and failed to benefit, because 
of unbelief. Because the substance was in faith, in the 
incarnation of which the bread and wine were symbols, 
for 

"Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the 
evidence of things that appear not." ^^ 
and expressed so completely by Our Lord, thus 

"As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the 
Father, so he that eateth me the same shall also live 
by me." ^5 

"And this is the will of my Father that sent me that 
every one who seeth the son and believeth in him, may 
have life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last 
day." '^ 

Thus considering this verse from John, the blessing of 
bread and wine by a pope, or priest of any denomination, 
does not of itself bring eternal life to those who partake 
of the Communion, but only when the Son is seen in the 
Communion and the participant believes in Him ; neither 
is He in the bread and wine unless seen by faith, which 
the Father above gives, and as told by the Apostle 
Paul. 

"As he chose us in him before the foundation of the 
world that we should be holy and unspotted in his sight 
in charity." ^^ 

"For the Lord himself shall come down from heaven 
with commandment, and with the voice of an archangel, 
24 Heb. 1 1 : I. 25 John 6 : 58. 26 John 6 : 40 27 Eph. i : 4. 



THE HOLY EUCHARIST 8i 

and with the trumpet of God; and the dead who are in 
Christ shall rise first/' ^s 

In the sixth chapter of John, there are at least fifteen 
references which may be considered as directly referring 
to the bread and life eternal, and most of them are 
coupled with the promise of life eternal, some promises 
to those who believe, some to those who see the Christ, 
but all evidently including those who take hold of Christ 
by faith and call upon His name. Let us examine these 
statements from John's gospel : 

"Now this is eternal life, that they may know thee 
the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast 
sent." 29 

Apparently after, according to the Gospel of Luke, our 
Lord had given thanks, we remember that Judas Iscariot 
partook with the Lord and His disciples of the first sup- 
per from which we derive our communion. Then this 
was called the Last Supper. While partaking with them 
and with the blessing of our Lord who gave thanks, yet 
as the Spirit was not in Judas, he in reality had no part. 
But thank God, that we who meet in His name, in what- 
ever communion we meet, have no such purpose as 
animated the heart of Judas. That Judas Iscariot re- 
ceived eternal life, in the sense that Jesus mentioned it, 
may well be questioned. 

Jesus was glorified when raised from the dead, with 
the glory that He had with the Father before the world 
was. 

**And now glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself 
with the glory which I had, before the world was, with 
thee." -"^^ 

Jesus was raised from the dead with the glory he 
prayed for, and after He had repeated the words : 

2«I Thes. 4:15. -»John 17:3. ^ojohn 17:5. 



S2 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" ^^ 
Is not the purpose of our Lord clear, that this Com- 
munion Service should be an ordinance of His Church 
so that His people might have in mind His death till 
He come ; rather than that there was to be miraculously 
injected into the bread and wine His body and His 
blood. It could not have been literally the body and 
blood shed before the world was, because then His 
body was not flesh and blood as born of Mary. 

Nor would his saying ''till I come" nor His saying 
"now with you in the Kingdom of my Father" be intel- 
ligent on such a supposition, for "till I come" was 
perpetuating His death and "now with you in the King- 
dom of my Father" evidently is to the coming again 
in His glory. And since the service was to be a com- 
memoration with the bread and wine as symbols no 
miracle of substitution was required, nor would it have 
been a substitution at the first communion because there 
was no crucified flesh and blood of man to miraculously 
substitute. 

31 Matt. 27:46. 



VI 
PURGATORY 

CARDINAL Gibbons starts off in his defense of a 
"Purgatory" as follows : — 

*'The Catholic Church teaches that, besides 
a place of eternal torments for the wicked and of ever- 
lasting rest for the righteous, there exists in the next 
life a middle state of temporary punishment allotted 
for those who have died in venial sin, or who have not 
satisfied the justice of God for sins already for- 
given." — Page 247 

From the Scripture texts throbbing with the truth of 
the prophets and apostles to the end that the justice of 
God is only satisfied by Christ; that there is no remnssion 
of sin save by the blood of Jesus Christ ; we select a few. 
First regarding the sentence from Cardinal Gibbons, "or 
who have not satisfied the justice of God for sins already 
forgiven" (as quoted above). 

In no instance in Scripture under the new covenant 
does God ask that His justice be satisfied ; except by the 
blood of Jesus Christ, the one sacrifice for sin. 

"And enter not into judgment with thy servant, for 
in thy sight no man living shall be justified." ^ 

"I am, I am he that blot out thy iniquities for my own 
sake, and I will not remember thy sins." 

"Put me in remembrance, and let us plead together: 
tell if thou hast anything to justify thyself." " 

"Who was delivered up for our sins and rose again 

for our justification."^ 

1 Psalms 142 : 2. 2 jsa. 43 : 25-26. ^ Rom. 4 : 25. 

83 



84 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

'Tor all have sinned, and do need the glory of God." 

"Being justified freely by his grace through the re- 
demption that is in Christ Jesus." 

"Whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation through 
faith in his blood to the shewing of his justice for the 
remission of former sins/' ^ 

"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, 
that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that 
we may ser^^e sin no longer." 

"For he that is dead is justified from sin." 

"Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that w^e 
shall live also together with Christ." ^ 

"There is now therefore no condemnation to them 
that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the 
flesh." 

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 
delivered me from the law of sin and of death." ^ 

The quotations from the Scriptures are given to call 
to mind that they who have accepted Jesus Christ in 
their hearts by faith in Him, have passed from death 
unto life eternal. 

The Reverend Cardinal Gibbons further says : 

"If then it is profitable for you to pray for your 
brother in the flesh, why should it be useless for you to 
pray for him out of the flesh? ... If this brother of 
yours dies with some slight stains upon his soul, a siii 
of impatience, for instance, or an idle word, is he fit to 
enter heaven with these blemishes upon his soul? No, 
the sanctity of God forbids it, for 'Nothing defiled shall 
enter the Kingdom of Heaven.' Will you consign him 
for those minor transgressions to eternal torments wnth 
adulterers and murderers? No, the justice and mercy 
of God forbid it: Therefore your common sense de- 
mands a middle place of expiation for the purgation of 

4 Rom. 3 : 23-25. s j^om. 6 : 6-8, « Rom. 8 : i. 



PURGATORY 85 

the soul before it is worthy of enjoying the companion- 
ship of God and His saints. God will render to every 
man according to his works, 'to the pure and unsulHed, 
everlasting bliss ; to the reprobate, eternal damnation ; 
to souls stained with minor faults, a place of temporary 
purgation.'' — Page 261 

It having been proven by the texts from Scripture last 
above quoted that there is no condemnation for those 
who are in Christ Jesus, let us examine if there be any 
minor defect which might distinguish between one who 
had broken the least of God's Commandments and one 
who was an adulterer or a murderer, as regards their 
common need of the Redeemer Jesus Christ to fit them 
for Heaven. 

^'For amen, I say unto you till heaven and earth pass, 
one jot or one tittle shall not pass of the law till all be 
fulfilled." 

"He therefore that shall break one of these least com- 
mandments and shall so teach men, shall be called the 
least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But he that shall do 
and teach he shall be called great in the Kingdom of 
Heaven." ' 

"And whosoever shall keep the whole law but offend 
in one point, is become guilty of all." 

"For he that saith : Thou shalt not commit adultery, 
said also. Thou shalt not kill. Now if thou do not com- 
mit adultery, but shalt kill, thou art become a transgres- 
sor of the law." ® 

"Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and you 
know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him- 
self." « 

It seems well to refer to Scripture again to learn if 
there may be imperfections in Christ's people at the 

^Matt. 5:18. sjames 2:10-11 "I John 3:15. 



86 THE ROMAX CATHOLIC BIBLE 

time of their departure from this world, which would 
prevent their immediate entrv^ into Heaven and the com- 
panionship of Christ Jesus and His saints. 

*'But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is 
made unto us wisdom and justice, and sanctification, and 
redemption." ^° 

"For both he that sanctineth and they who are sancti- 
fied are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed 
to call them brethren, saying, 'I will declare thy name to 
my brethren; in the midst of the church will I praise 
thee/"^ 

"And for them do I sanctify myself that they also may 
be sanctified in truth." "And not for them only do I pray, 
but for them also who through their word shall believe 
in me." 

"That they all may be one as thou Father in me and 
I in thee, that they also may be one in us that the world 
may believe that thou hast sent me . . . and hast loved 
ihem as thou hast loved me.'' 

"Father, I v. i I that v, here I am they also whom thou 
hast given me may be ' ::h me, that they may see the 
glory which thou hast gWtn n:e, because thou hast loved 
me before the creation of the world.'' ^ 

Cardinal Gibbons further says : 

"'For the souls consigned to this middle state have not 
reached the term of their journey. They are still exiles 
from heaven and fit subjects for divine clemency. Is it 
not strange that this cherished doctrine shotdd also be 
ca.led in question by the leveling innovators of the Six- 
teenth Centur}', when we consider that it is clearly taught 
in the Old Testament, that it is at least insinuated in the 
Xew Testament?" — Page 247 

1^1 Cor. 1:30. iiHeb. 2:11, 12. 

12 John 17: 19, 2p| 21, 23, 24, 



PURGATORY 87 

As no quotation is made by Cardinal Gibbons from 
any book of the Old Testament in support of the exist- 
ence of Purgatory, excepting a book known to Protes- 
tants as an apocryphal book contained in the Douay 
Version, but not in the King James Version (namely, a 
Book of Maccabees), we are left to imply that he has 
found nothing from the Old Testament which can be 
used in support of such a place as Purgatory is taught 
to be, in the teachings of the Romish Church. 

Considering that the whole world was lying in dark- 
ness at the coming of Our Saviour, it is not strange tliat 
the author of the historical second Book of Maccabees 
should have related of the "most valiant Judas" that he 
ordered prayers for the dead soldiers at a time when 
the Maccabee rulers were fighting this revolution in the 
name of the Plebrew race. 

From the following verses of Scripture, we find that 
there is variation in Heaven, also that there is prepara- 
tion going on in Our Father's House. But we fail to 
find in Scripture any intermediate place between earth 
and Paradise, or earth and a place of torment. 

"The heaven of heaven is the Lord's." ^^ 

"I know a man in Christ above fourteen years ago 
(whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I 
know not, God knoweth) such a one caught up to the 
third heaven." "And I know such a man (whether in 
the body or out of the body I know not, God know- 
eth)." "That he was caught up into Paradise and 
heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to 
utter." ^^ 

"In my Father's house there are many mansions, if 
not, I would have told you, because I go to prepare a 
place for you." "And if I shall go and prepare a place 

1^ Psalms 113: 16. 1* II Cor. 12: 2-4. 



88 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; 
that where I am you also may be." ^^ 

"And all his children being gathered together to com- 
fort their father in his sorrow, he would not receive 
comfort, but said, I will go down to my son into hell 
(grave) mourning. And whilst he continued weeping," ^^ 

"And Samuel said to Saul: V/hy hast thou disturbed 
my rest?" . . . 

"And the Lord also will deliver Israel with thee into 
the hands of the Philistines, and to-morrow thou and 
thy sons shall be with me." . . .^^ 

"But go thy ways until the time appointed, and thou 
shalt rest and stand in thy lot unto the end of the days." ^^ 

"And to you who are troubled, rest with us when the 
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with the angels 
of his power." ^^ 

"Who by the power of God are kept by faith unto sal- 
vation ready to be revealed in the last time." ^^ 

The Reverend Prelate says further : 

"Our Saviour says 'Whosoever shall speak a word 
against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him. But 
he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not 
be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world 
to come. When Our Saviour declares that a sin against 
the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven in the next life, he 
evidently leaves us to infer that there are some sins 
which will be pardoned in the life to come." 

— Pages 249-50 

As Cardinal Gibbons has implied that there are two 
places to come, "one a middle place of expiation," does 
he mean that this middle place (Purgatory) is the "world 
to come" mentioned by Our Saviour? If so, how then 
are we to account for this saying of Our Saviour? 

15 John 14: 2, 3. 17 I Kings 28: 15, 19. ^^ II Thess. i : 7. 

i« Gen. zi ' 35. ^^ Dan. 12 : 13. 20 i Peter i : 5. 



PURGATORY 89 

"Who shall not receive an hundred times as much 
now in this time, houses and brethren and sisters, and 
mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and 
in the world to come life everlasting." ^^ 

"Then Peter said : Behold, we have left all things and 
have followed thee." "Who said to them : Amen, I say 
to you there is no man that hath left house or parents or 
brethren, or wife, or children, for the Kingdom of God's 
sake," "Who shall not receive much more in this present 
time, and in the world to come life everlasting." ^- 

Are we to infer that they with Peter, Who have ob- 
tained everlasting life in the world to come with Jesus 
their Saviour who went to prepare a place for them, that 
where He was they might be also, were in a middle place 
of expiation? Or, on the other hand, that forgiveness is 
not complete in Heaven when it is reached by the re- 
deemed? Should we not rather take the plain meaning 
of the text Cardinal Gibbons quotes, which is a reason- 
able one, that blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is not 
forgiven, neither here nor in time to come, but is as also 
told in Mark 3 : 29 : 

"But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, 
shall never have forgiveness, but shall be guilty of an 
everlasting sin." 

As further evidence bearing on this tenet of the Roman 
Catholic Church, Cardinal Gibbons offers the following : — 

"St. Paul tells us that 'every man's work shall be 
manifest' on the Lord's Day; 'the lire shall try every 
man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work 
abide,' that is, if his works are holy, *he shall receive 
a reward. If any man's work burn,' that is, if his 
works are faulty and imperfect, *he shall suffer loss, but 
he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire,' his soul will 

21 Mark 10:30. --Luke iS :j8, 29, 30. 



90 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

be ultimately saved, but he shall suffer for a temporary 
duration in the purifying flames of purgatory. This 
interpretation is not mine. It is the unanimous voice of 
the Fathers of Christendom.'' — Page 250 

The quotations from Scripture made by Cardinal 
Gibbons in the last above, are from I Cor. 3: 13-15. 

We will quote from previous verses in the chapter to 
show that it is to the Corinthians as a church and upon 
the foundation which he, Paul, had laid for them, that he 
has reference to, ^'which foundation is Christ Jesus." 

Therefore, it was to those who had confessed their 
faith in Christ Jesus that he refers when he considers 
the value of their works built on Plim. 

"According to the grace of God that is given to me as 
a wise architect, I have laid the foundation ; and another 
buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he 
buildeth thereupon." ''For other foundation can no man 
lay than that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus." 
"Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, 
silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble": "Every 
man's work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord 
shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and 
the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is." 

"If any man's work abide, which he hath built there- 
upon, he shall receive a reward." 

"If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he 
himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." "Know you 
not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit 
of God dwelleth in you?" "But if any man violate the 
temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of 
God is holy, which you are." ^^ 

"For we must all be manifested before the judgment 
seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper 

23 1 Cor. 3 : 10-17. 



PURGATORY 91 

things of the body, according as he hath done, whether 
it be good or evil/' ^^ 

This admonition was given to behevers. They were 
told that the Spirit of God dwelt in them, and that they 
v\7ere temples of God. The foundation they built upon 
was laid of Christ Jesus; that their works should be 
tried in the day of the Lord. That "day of the Lord" 
is evident from the Scriptures the day of judgment in 
which all shall appear and be judged. Here is the gospel 
all pointing to that day. 

*Tor yourselves know perfectly that the day of the 
Lord shall so come as a thief in the night." ^^ 

*'That you be not easily moved from your sense, nor 
be terrified neither by Spirit nor by my word, nor by 
epistle, as sent from us, as if the day of the Lord were 
at hand." 

"Let no man deceive you by any means, for unless 
there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed 
the son of perdition." "Who opposeth, and is lifted up 
above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that 
he sitteth in the temple of God showing himself as if he 
were God." 

"And then that wicked one shall be revealed, whom 
the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth; 
and shall destroy with the brightness of his com- 
ing." 2« 

"But of that day and hour no one knoweth, no not the 
angels of heaven, but the Father alone." "And as in the 
days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of 
man be." "Wherefore be you also ready, because at 
what hour you know not, the Son of man will come." -^ 

"To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction 

24 II Cor. 5 : 10. 20 n Thess. 2 : 2, 3, 4. 8. 

2s I Thcss. 5:2. 27 Matt. 24 : 36-37 and 44. 



92 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." '^^ 

"Being confident of this very thing, that he who hath 
begun a good work in you, will perfect it unto the day 
of Christ Jesus." ^^ 

"As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of 
justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me 
in that day, and not only to me but to them also that 
love his coming. Make haste to come to me quickly." ^^ 

"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly from 
temptation, but to reserve the unjust unto the day of 
judgment to be tormented." ^^ 

"And the angels who kept not their principality but 
forsook their own habitation, he hath reserved, under 
darkness in everlasting chains unto judgment of the 
great day." ^^ 

We have selected these various Scripture verses to 
show that "the Lord's Day," as quoted by Cardinal Gib- 
bons from Paul's letter to the Corinthians, refers to a 
day when all are judged, the good and the evil, and not 
to an intermediate place and judgment. The fire re- 
ferred to by Paul in his letter is on the last day. 

In the parable of the rich man (Dives) and Lazarus, 
Our Saviour gives scenes from the Unseen World. The 
parable follows the parable of the unjust steward, and 
shows demands that will be made of those to whom God 
has intrusted riches, but between the stories are verses 
of Scripture which tell us that no part of the law will 
fail; that practices which the Pharisees legalized and 
shared in, involved them as violators of the Command- 
ments. 

In the parable in which Dives appears as a certain 

28 I Cor. 5:5. ^^ H Tim. 4 : 8. ^2 j^de i : 6. 

29 Philip 1:6. 31 II Peter. 2 : 9. 



PURGATORY 93 

rich man, nothing is said of his having any traits of 
character that would have placed him outside of a circle 
which the Pharisees would have deemed respectable. 
He failed in that he did not make such use of the riches 
entrusted to him as would have won for him friends 
such as Lazarus secured. 

"And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was 
carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom; and the 
rich man also died, and he was buried in hell." *'And 
lifting up his eyes, when he was in torments he saw 
Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." "And 
he cried and said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me 
and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger 
in water, to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this 
flame." 

"And Abraham said to him. Son, remember that thou 
didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and likewise 
Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and thou 
art tormented." "And besides all this between us and 
you there is fixed a great chaos, so that they who would 
pass hence to you, cannot, nor from thence come hither." 
"And he said, Then, Father, I beseech thee, that thou 
wouldst send him to my father's house for I have five 
brethren." "That he may testify unto them, lest they 
also come into this place of torments." "And Abraham 
said to him. They have Moses and the prophets, let them 
hear them." "But he said. No, Father Abraham, but if 
one went to them from the dead they will do penance." 
"And he said to him: If they hear not Moses and the 
prophets, neither will they believe if one rise again from 
the dead." ^^ 

As in other parables of Our Saviour, it is here sought 
to show conditions that are unseen by presenting those 

22 Luke 16: 22-31. 



94 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

things that are before us in everyday life, here the letter 
cannot be taken without killing the story, the purpose 
of the story being destroyed. By taking the spirit of 
the parable, conditions are revealed from which we learn 
the following truths. 

In the eyes of the God of Abraham, Dives who had re- 
ceived good things, had failed in his trust, refusing to 
hear and obey either Moses or the prophets. On the 
other hand, Lazarus had received evil things in his asso- 
ciation with the world, and in the eyes of the God of 
Abraham was fit to be carried by angels into Abraham's 
bosom. Dives, clothed in purple and fine linen, unmind- 
ful of his fellow man, passed through the gates of his 
dwelling, where Lazarus lay in pitiable condition. Laz- 
arus needed help which God had given Dives the oppor- 
tunity to bestow. Dives imparted to those of his house- 
hold his own spirit. It is mentioned that no one gave 
to Lazarus the crumbs that he craved, or prevented the 
dogs from Hcking his sores. At his death, Lazarus is 
carried to Abraham's bosom, while Dives in torment 
looking up, beholds the blessed state of the beggar who 
lay at the gate. Dives cries for mercy, not to God but 
to Abraham. He asks that Lazarus, who was refused 
the crumbs that once fell from his table, be sent to 
touch his tongue with the water that might be contained 
on the tip of his finger. He was in flames, tormented. 

How could bliss and torment be more effectively pic- 
tured to Our Saviour's hearers? 

In reply, Abraham reminds Dives of the good things 
he had received in his lifetime, and which w^hen he had 
the opportunity, he refused to supply to Lazarus (con- 
trary to the teachings of Moses and the prophets) and 
that now Lazarus was comforted. 

"Besides all this between us and you there is fixed a 



PURGATORY 95 

great chaos, so that they who would cannot pass from 
one to the other." 

What words more definite could be used than those 
given by Our Saviour, conveying the idea of there being 
no intermediate place between the two conditions in 
which Lazarus and Dives found themselves? 

There is a further appeal from Dives, again not to 
God, but to Abraham, whom the Pharisees relied in as 
their father, rather than in the God of Abraham. Dives 
beseeched that Lazarus be sent to his five brothers, con- 
tending that if one rose from the dead, they would be- 
lieve, but Abraham says, "If they hear not Moses and 
the prophets, neither will they believe if one rise again 
from the dead." 



yii 

THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE 

IN dealing with this question Cardinal Gibbons says: 
"But the important question here presents itself : 
How was man to obtain forgiveness in the church 
after our Lord's ascension? 

"Was Jesus Christ to appear in person to every sinful 
soul and say to each penitent as he said to Magdalen, 
'Thy sins are forgiven thee/ or did He intend to dele- 
gate this power of forgiving sins to ministers appointed 
for that purpose?" — Page 389 

These questions are plainly answered in the Saviour's 
last discourse to His disciples: 

"And I will ask the Father and he shall give you 
another Paraclete, that he may abide w^ith you forever." 
"The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive 
because it seeth him not, nor knoweth him, but you 
shall know him, because he shall abide with you, and 
shall be in you." ^ 

"He shall glorify me: Because he shall receive of 
mine and shall shew it to you." - 

"I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you." ^ 

"And not for them only do I pray, but for them also, 
who through their word shall believe in me." "I in 
them, and thou in me : That they may be made perfect in 
one." ^ 

Far from desiring a separation between men and Him- 
self, that some intermediate intercessor beside His own 

ijohn 14:16, 17. 3 John 14:18. 

2 John 16 : 14. •* John 17 : 20-23. 

96 



THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE 97 

Spirit might fill a gap, Our Saviour taught directly the 
contrary. 

"And I say to you, Ask and it shall be given you. 
Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened 
to you. 

*Tf you then being evil know how to give good gifts 
to your children, how much more will your Father 
from Heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask 
him." ' 

Like the sun in its course, the Spirit of Christ broods 
over the earth and men, bringing light and life to all 
that will receive. 

"Thine is the day, and thine is the night: Thou hast 
made the morning light and the sun." "Thou hast made 
all the borders of the earth : the summer and the spring 
were formed by thee." ^ 

"And the moon shall blush and the sun shall be 
ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount 
Sion, and in Jerusalem, and shall be glorified in the sight 
of his ancients." "^ 

"I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you these 
things in the churches. I am the root and stock of 
David, the bright and morning star. "And the Spirit 
and the Bride say Come, And he that heareth let him 
say Come, and he that thirsteth, let him come, and he 
that will, let him take the water of life freely." ^ 

It is to be noticed that in the invitation given above, 
as in all invitations of the gospel, it is to come to Christ 
to partake of the water of life. The Bride, the church, 
joins in the invitation. In no case whatever in Scripture 
is the partaking of anything short of Christ said to effect 
salvation. Therefore the following plea for "The Sac- 

5 Luke IT : 9, 13. '^ Isa. 24 : 23. 

Psa. 73 : 16-17. 8 Apocalypse 22 : 16-17. 



98 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

rament of Penance," by Cardinal Gibbons, is without 
Scriptural support, namely: 

"If God is able to save us without any priestly minis- 
trations, why then are not the people informed, that they 
can in future dispense altogether with the services of the 
clergy without any detriment to their own salvation: 
St. Augustine, who lived 1400 years ago, will answer 
the objection for me — 'Let no one,' remarked this illus- 
trious doctor, 'say to himself, I da penance to God in 
private : I do it before God : Is it then in vain that Christ 
has said. Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be 
loosed in heaven? Is it in vain that the keys have been 
given to the Church?' The question for us is not what 
God is able to do, but what He has willed to do; God 
might have adopted other means for the justification of 
the sinner, as He might have created a world different 
from the present one. But it is our business to take our 
Father at His word and to have recourse with gratitude 
to the system He has actually established for our justi- 
fication. Now we are assured by His infallible word, 
that it is by having recourse to His consecrated ministers 
that our sins will be forgiven us." — Pages 411-12 

Here reference is made to the 20th Chapter of John. 
This passage in John is referred to as the Scriptural 
evidence held by the Reverend Cardinal Gibbons, to- 
gether with Matt. 16: 18, 19, as proving his own asser- 
tions. 



"Our Saviour did confer on the Apostles and their 
successors the power to forgive sins." — Page 391 

Also that 

"In the Gospel of St. John we have a still more strik- 
ing declaration of the absolving power given by our 
Saviour to His apostles." — Page 392 



THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE 99 

It is well to point to the manifest truth in these Scrip- 
ture references before pointing to any of the hundreds 
of other Scripture references which plainly place the 
forgiveness of sins by God solely and only with the 
Father, the Son and Holy Ghost. In no instance is it 
recorded in Scripture that the Apostles acted as an inter- 
mediate between God and man in forgiving sin, except 
as preachers of the Gospel they taught repentance and 
belief in the Saviour; nor is there any instance where 
they said to any, "Thy sins are forgiven." 

**He said therefore to them again, Peace be to you. 
As the Father hath sent me I also send you." 

"When he had said this he breathed on them, and he 
said to them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost." "Whose sins 
you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose 
sins you shall retain they are retained." ^ 

Here are also the parallel accounts given by Mark and 
Luke : — 

"At length he appeared to the eleven as they were at 
table : and he upbraided them with their incredulity and 
hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who 
had seen him after he was risen again." "And he said 
to them. Go ye into the whole world and preach the 
gospel to every creature." 

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. But 
he that believeth not shall be condemned." ^^ 

"Then he opened their understanding that they might 
understand the Scriptures." "And he isaid to them. 
Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer 
and to rise again from the dead the third day." 

"And that penance and remission of sins should be 
preached in his name unto all nations, beginning at 
Jerusalem." "And you are witnesses of these things." ^^ 

John 20 : 21-23. 1^ Mark 16 : 14-16. i^ Luke 24 : 45-49. 



lOO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

It was immediately following and connected with the 
Saviour's breathing upon the disciples and saying to 
them, ^'Receive ye the Holy Ghost/' that He said, 
*'Whose sins ye shall forgive they are forgiven them, 
and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." 

It plainly appears in this command and in the parallel 
passages in Mark and Luke, that it was the Christ and 
His Spirit through whom forgiveness was to come, and 
they were simply the witness of this Gospel which they 
were commanded to preach. 

The heart of man is wholly known to God only. 

*'Hear thou from heaven, from thy high dwelling- 
place and forgive, and render to every one according to 
his ways which thou knowest him to have in his heart: 
(for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of 
men)."^^ 

Prayer was m.ade the medium by the apostles through 
which forgiveness in Christ Jesus was to come to those 
to whom they preached. They never assumed the re- 
sponsibility of pronouncing forgiveness to any man. 
Peter directed Simon the magician to pray to God for 
forgiveness, not assuming to accept his penance and him- 
self pronounce forgiveness, but contrariwise it is men- 
tioned that the disciples testified and preached the word 
of the Lord. 

"Keep thy money to thyself, to perish with thee be- 
cause thou hast thought that the gift of God may be pur- 
chased with money." 

"'Thou hast no part nor lot in this matter. For thy 
heart is not right in the sight of God. 

''Do penance therefore for this thy wickedness and 
pray to God that perhaps this thought of thy heart may 

12 II Paralipomenon (II Chronicles) 6:30. 



THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE loi 

be forgiven thee." "For I see thou art in the gall of 
bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity." 

"Then Simon answering said, Pray you for me to the 
Lord, that none of these things which you have spoken 
may come upon me." "And they indeed having testi- 
fied and preached the word of the Lord, returned to 
Jerusalem and preached the gospel to many countries of 
the Samaritans." ^^ 

No one but the Father, Son and Holy Ghost could 
make the declaration following in Luke, and assume the 
responsibility involved in it; and never has that respon- 
sibility, so far as Scripture shows, been delegated to any 
other person. 

"And I say to you, whosoever shall confess me before 
men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the 
angels of God." "But he that shall deny me before men 
shall be denied before the angels of God." 

"And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of 
Man it shall be forgiven him ; but to him that shall blas- 
pheme against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven." ^* 

The disciples were sent forth as preachers of the 
Gospel, to testify to Christ's crucifixion, resurrection 
and His power to forgive sins, and of the finished atone- 
ment by His blood. Whose sins were forgiven by this 
witnessing and preaching on earth were thus verified as 
forgiven from His throne in Heaven. Whose sins were 
retained were so verified as retained from His throne 
in Heaven, for he that believed not the Christ they 
preached was condemned already. His seal was thus 
placed upon the results of the preaching and witnessing 
of the apostles. 

Christ never left His disciples or apostles: His per- 

18 Acts 8 : 20-25. ^"^ Luke 12 : 8-10. 



I02 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

sonal prerogatives were never delegated: He is a jealous 
God. 

**But they going forth preached everywhere : the Lord 
working withal, and confirming the word with signs that 
followed." ^^ 

The fellowship of Christ with His apostles and dis- 
ciples was closer after His ascension than when with 
them in the flesh because of His presence with the 
Father in the glory that He had before the world was, 
and because of His presence at the same time with His 
brethren, whom He had brought into oneness with Llim- 
self, even as He was one with the Father. 

*'That they all may be one, as thou Father in me and 
I in thee that they also may be one in us ; that the world 
may believe that thou hast sent me." ^^ 

"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
have commanded you, and behold I am with you all 
days." ^' 

"Behold I stand at the gate and knock. If any man 
shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will 
come in to him, and will sup with him and he with me." ^^ 

The Incarnate Son of God did not speak or work of 
Himself, but performed the mission upon which He was 
sent of His Father. Nowhere is it stated in Scripture 
that He was to leave a vacancy that was to be filled by 
man. His Spirit was to be sent and was sent and His 
presence is with all who will receive Him, and that 
which His Father committed to Him for His disciples 
He gave to them. 

"For I have not spoken of myself but the Father who 
sent me. He gave me commandment, what I should 
say, and what I should speak." ^® 

15 Mark i6 : 20. ^'^ Matt. 28 : 20. ^^ John 12 : 49. 

i« John 17 : 21. IS Apocalypse 3 : 20. 



THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE 103 

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the 
Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I speak 
not of myself, but the Father who abideth in me he 
doeth the works." ^^ 

"And the glory which thou hast given me, I have 
given to them; that they may be one, as we also are 
one." 2^ 

With this Presence of God the Father, God the Son 
and God the Holy Ghost, forever with the penitent one 
in that union made known by the words of Our Saviour, 
how can we find need of a fourth personage in man to 
supplement by forgiveness to the sinner that which is 
already vouchsafed to him by the perfected work of the 
Redeemer? How can we reconcile the delegating to 
another of that which He stated so plainly was not of 
His own but the command of His Father? But rather, 
how consistent and in keeping with the written word is 
His command to His disciples that they teach and preach 
and witness, and receive the promise of the Father? 

"But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost 
coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in 
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, even to the 
uttermost part of the earth." ^^ 

That the forgiveness of sins was through faith, and 
not through any dogma of ecclesiastical bodies, is illus- 
trated by Paul in his letter to the Romans. 

"As David also termeth the blessedness of a man to 
whom God reputeth justice without works." 

"Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and 
whose sins are covered." 

"Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not im- 
puted sin." ^^ 

2« John 14: 10. 22 Acts t:8. 

21 John 17 : 22. 23 Romans 4:6, 7, 8. 



I04 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

Again in Acts, the Lord's commission to the Apostle 
Paul: 

*'To open their eyes, that they may be converted from 
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, 
that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and a lot 
among the saints, by the faith that is in me/' ^^ 

Also we find in the following, both repentance and for- 
giveness are from God. 

''But he whom God hath raised from the dead saw no 
corruption/' 

''Be it known therefore to you, men, brethren, that 
through him forgiveness of sins is preached to you, and 
from all the things from which you could not be justi- 
fied by the law of Aloses." -^ 

"Him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be 
prince and Saviour to give repentance to Israel, and re- 
mission of sins." 

"And we are witnesses of these things and the Holy 
Spirit whom God hath given to all that obey him." -^ 

His Prophet Daniel places forgiveness as belonging to 
the Lord, 

"O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our 
princes and to our fathers that have sinned." 

"But to thee the Lord our God, mercy and forgiveness 
for we have parted from thee." -• 

Through the prayer of faith and not by a prerogative 
of any man save Christ Jesus, was sin to be forgiven, 
and still faith must be exercised in the promise of for- 
giveness. 

"And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man, and 
the Lord shall raise him up; and if he be in sins they 
shall be f ormven him." ^^ 



^&^ 



24 Acts 26 : 18. 26 Acts 5 : 3i, 32. 28 James 5 : i5- 

25 Acts 13 : 37, 38. 27 Daniel 9:8, 9. 



THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE 105 

Had it been necessary that the penitent should go to 
a priest to confess his sins and receive absolution, it 
would have been somewhere in Scripture so directed, or 
some instance cited; but nowhere in Scripture do we 
find such a practice among Christ's disciples or any com- 
mand to such efifect. On the contrary, the Scripture is 
full of instances of the direct appeal to God by the 
sinner, and direct encouragement to the sinner to come 
to Him; neither is there to be found any practice of the 
Apostles of Christ asking or requiring or countenancing 
any such confession through which they pronounced ab- 
solution upon the penitent sinner. 

While confession to a priest may be made without 
harm to any one, and in cases with possible benefit to 
the one who confesses, yet such is not the invitation from 
Christ, who says, ''Come unto me"; and in no case is it 
said. And my apostle or my minister will absolve you. 

The injunction is. Confess your sins one to another, 
but as elsewhere in the Written Word, it is by prayer 
that the faith in God's forgiveness is exercised, and not 
by absolution granted by man in God's stead. 

The letter of James was to the twelve tribes without 
discrimination. 

"Confess therefore your sins one to another : and pray 
one for another that you may be saved, for the continual 
prayer of a just man availeth much." "^ 

*Tf we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to for- 
give us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquities." ^^ 

"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the 
remission of sins." ^^ 

"And I prayed to the Lord my God, and I made my 
confession, and said, T beseech thee, O Lord God, great 
and terrible, who keepest thy covenant, and mercy to 

2» James 5 : 16. 30 j John 1:9. 3i Col. i : 14. 



io6 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

them that love thee and keep thy commandments," 
**We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have 
done wickedly, and have revolted, and we have gone 
aside from the commandments and thy judgments/' ^^ 

*T have acknowledged my sin to thee and my injustice 
I have not concealed. I said I will confess against my- 
self my injustice to the Lord : and thou hast forgiven 
the wickedness of my sin. For this shall every one that 
is holy pray to thee in a seasonable time." ^^ 

*'But thou, why judgest thou thy brother? Or thou, 
why doest thou despise thy brother? For we shall all 
stand before the judgment seat of Christ." "For it is 
written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow 
to me and every tongue shall confess to God." 

"Therefore every one of us shall render account to 
God Himself." ^^ 

The penitent heart is not here led by the "Sacrament 
of Penance" direct to the Saviour or the Saviour's 
words, but by implication of the Reverend Cardinal 
Gibbons is directed first to confession before a priest 
that he may be absolved by him. We give the Saviour's 
words, which we should consider when we pray "for- 
give us our debts as we forgive our debtors" as one 
way in which the absolution of Him whom we have 
sinned against, may be given, and the peace which 
passeth understanding may be ours through the inter- 
cession of the "Prince of Peace." 

"But when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, 
and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret; 
and thy Father which seeth in secret will repay thee." ^^ 

Here is Cardinal Gibbons' version of the authority of 
the Roman Catholic Church to absolve from sin, 

32 Dan. 9:4, 5. 34 Romans 14 : 10. 

33 Psalms 31 : 5, 6. 35 Matt. 6 : 6. 



THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE 107 

"Naman went and washed and was cleansed. Our 
opponents like Naman, cry out, *Why should you go to 
a priest, a sinner like yourself, when secretly in your 
own room you can approach God, the pure fountain of 
grace, to be washed from your sins?' I answer because 
Jesus Christ, a prophet and more than a prophet, has 
commanded you to do so." 

— Faith of Our Fathers, Pages 412-413 

But when did Jesus give such a command? Fie did 
give the command quoted above from Matt. 6. 

"Let it be understood once for all that the priest abro- 
gates to himself no divine powers. He is but a feeble 
voice. It is the Holy Spirit that operates the sanctity in 
the soul of the penitent." 

— Faith of Our Fathers, Page 410 

But if the priest abrogates to himself no divine powers, 
how is he a representation fitted to act for divine 
powers? Is a priest teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ 
not an ambassador for Christ, with full power to pre- 
sent that gospel which loosens the captive from his chains 
of sin through "the Holy Ghost who operates sanctity 
to the soul"? 

But an ambassador, though a feeble voice, fully rep- 
resents his government in that which he has been in- 
structed to represent. But he is withholden from acting 
for his government in matters in which he has not been 
instructed. 

Where in Scripture has any man or any priest been 
given the power on earth to forgive sins, save Jesus 
Christ, "the Son of Man"? 

Were the disciples given instructions to forgive sins, 
in the commission imparted to them by the Saviour? 
Many specific instructions were given them, but none 
to forgive sins. They were even to raise the dead, but 



io8 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

no instructions were given them to absolve any person 
from sin. The gospel and the Holy Spirit in the gospel 
would direct to seek Christ Jesus, and asking they would 
be forgiven. 

"And as ye go, preach, saying, the Kingdom of 
Heaven is at hand." ^^ 

They were to preach repentance. God alone can lead 
to repentance. They were to preach the forgiveness of 
sins. God alone can forgive sins, in His person of 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 

''O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face." "But 
to Thee, the Lord our God, mercy and forgiveness.'*^^ 

36 Acts 13 : 38. 37 Daniel 9 : 8, 9. 



VIII 
INDULGENCES 

A NATURAL sequence to its claim as head of 
Christendom and a delegated power for for- 
giving sins, is the Roman Church tenet of In- 
dulgences. Here is given Cardinal Gibbons' definition 
of this tenet of the Roman Church. 

"An indulgence is simply a remission in whole or in 
part through the superabundant merits of Jesus Christ 
and His saints of the temporal punishment due to God 
on account of sin, after the guilt and eternal punish- 
ment have been remitted. It should be borne in mind 
that even after our guilt is removed, there often remains 
some temporal punishment to be undergone, either in 
this life or the next, as an expiation to divine sanctity 
and justice." r—Page 428 

To this His Reverence adds : 

"Now there are two impediments that withhold a man 
from the heavenly Kingdom — sin and the temporal pun- 
ishment incurred by it." — Page 429 

We are unable to bring together in harmony these 
separate statements. Either Cardinal Gibbons wishes to 
inform us that the Roman Church does not hold that 
the Kingdom of Heaven has been obtained by the peni- 
tent through merits of Jesus Christ "after the guilt and 
punishment have been remitted," or else that the merits 
of Jesus Christ are insufificient to effect both an entrance 
to the Kingdom of Heaven and at the same time to 
satisfy "divine sanctity and justice." 

109 



no THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

Where in the Scripture can be found such a division 
of impediments withholding a man from the heavenly- 
Kingdom? There is no such division. When a man 
turns to Jesus Christ from his sins, it is because the 
Spirit of God has so led him, and he is accepted as he is. 

"And the church having power to remit the greater 
obstacle which is sin, has power also to remove the 
smaller obstacle, which is the temporal punishment due 
on account of it/' — Page 429 

How can the Roman Catholic Church reach iniquities, 
which when forgiven of God are "removed as far as 
the east is from the west" ? ^ 

Or how can temporal punishment be exacted from 
man as due to God from those iniquities which He has 
"blotted out"? 

"Be penitent therefore and be converted that your sins 
may be blotted out." ^ 

"I have blotted out thy iniquities as a cloud, and thy 
sins as a mist: return unto me for I have redeemed 
thee." ^ 

"I am, I am he that blot out thy iniquities for my 
own sake and I will not remember thy sins."^ 

"Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was 
against us, which was contrary to us, and he hath taken 
the same out of the way, fastening it to the cross." ^ 

What is "the obstacle" that yet remains, and "the 
punishment due" after the handwriting of the decree 
has been blotted out, and fastened to the Cross? Is 
there something left as a stain after God has blotted out, 
or is the cross weak and insufficient that we should turn 
from the cross to the Roman Catholic Church for 

1 Psalm 102 : 12. ^ Isaiah 44:22. ^ Col. 2 : 14. 

2 Acts 3 : 19. ^ Isaiah 43 : 25. 



INDULGENCES iii 

"power to remit" the iniquities and sins already nailed 
to the cross, remembered no more by the *'I am" ? 

How plainly the Apostle Paul expresses our redemp- 
tion in Jesus Christ, in the following three lines : 

"And their sins and iniquities I will remember no 
more : Now where there is a remission of these, there is 
no more an oblation for sin." ^ 

It is to be noted that the word "oblation" is in Roman 
Law "a formal tender by a debtor to his creditor of a 
sum of money in payment of a debt." 

The Holy Spirit in a Psalm of David conveys the 
following purport of sin: 

"To thee 'only have I sinned and done evil before 
thee." ^ 

Why then need the Roman Catholic Church place 
itself between the sinner and the one sinned against, 
when Christ Jesus has already placed Himself there, 
and directed His apostles to witness for Him? Does 
not every true church consist of those who become the 
church of God, "which He hath purchased with His own 
blood"? 

"The word indulgence originally signified favor, re- 
mission or forgiveness." 

— Faith of Our Fathers, Page 428 

Is it consistent for man, who should daily pray like 
the prayer He taught us, beginning "Father, hallowed 
be Thy name," to assume the power to "favor" by "re- 
mitting" or "forgiving" the effects of sin, or to assume 
that any church has "power to remit the greater ob- 
stacle which is sin"? 

Did not Nathan the Prophet when accusing King 
David, say to him : 

"And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the 

6 Heb. 10 : 17, 18. '^ Psalm 50 : 6. 



112 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord also hath 
taken away thy guilt." ^ 

We find our Lord thus forgiving David, although ab- 
sent from earth as regards mention of any bodily pres- 
ence. Why may He not forgive the sinner who comes 
to Him at His call, although He may not be here in 
bodily presence? And that without committing His pre- 
rogative to a pope or priest? 

Does not Scripture make plain that the Church of 
Christ consists of His own people? Would not then a 
church be forgiving its own self if it was the only 
source of forgiveness on earth? 

Read the following from Paul's letter to Ephesians. 

*'That he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the *laver 
of water' in the word of life." 

"That he might present it to himself a glorious church, 
not having spot or wrinkle." ® 

"Now you are clean by reason of the word which I 
have spoken to you." 

"Abide in me, and I in you." ^® 

Under strange teaching, God is supposed to hold the 
penalty of sin still against the sinner, in the form of 
temporal punishment for it. As sin in such case relates 
not to the ills which sin brings to man's nature, but as an 
impediment to his entering the Kingdom, therefore the 
forgiveness of the Only Begotten Son of God becomes 
insufficient until supplemented by the forgiveness or re- 
mittance of the Roman Catholic Church through an in- 
dulgence, as Cardinal Gibbons would make it. 

"Indulgences continue to be necessary now, if not as a 
substitute for canonical penances, at least as a mild and 
merciful payment of the temporal debt due to God." 
— Faith of Our Fathers, Page 431 
8 11 Kings (Samuel) 12:13. ^ Eph. 5:26-27. 

10 John 15:3-4. 



INDULGENCES 113 

We imagine something akin to a chill would come to 
the intelligent child who is given such teaching regarding 
forgiveness, instead of that which it receives at its 
mother's knee when in its confession of wrong it receives 
the fond, forgiving kiss and the restored favor of a 
loving parent who has taught her child, "J^sus loves me, 
this I know, for the Bible tells me so." 

"And forgive us our debts as we also forgive our 
debtors." ^^ 

"All that the Father giveth to me shall come to me 
and him that cometh to me, I will not cast out." ^^ 

"For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead 
corporally." 

"And you are filled in Him who is the Head of all 
principality and power." 

"Buried with Him in baptism in whom also you are 
risen again by the faith of the operation of God, who 
hath raised Him up from the dead." "And you when 
you were dead in your sin and the uncircumcision of 
your flesh. He hath quickened together with Him, for- 
giving you all offenses." ^^ 

What pleasure is felt in turning from Roman Catholic 
Church dogma to the Roman Catholic Bible, from which 
we so often quote, and which contains so much that en- 
lightens and gives joy. No dispensation of man can 
ever compete with that of the Son of God. 

Here we give Scripture touching upon the all suffi- 
ciency of the merits of Jesus Christ. As to the merits of 
His saints, are they not all agreed that Christ Jesus is 
their all and in all? 

"For the end of the law is Christ unto justice to every 
one that believeth." ^* 

11 Matt. 6:12. 13 Col. 2:9, 10, 12, 13. 

12 John 6:37. 1* Rom. 10:4. 



114 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

"For whether we live we live unto the Lord, or 
whether we die we die unto the Lord." "Therefore 
whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." ^^ 

"Who shall accuse against the elect of God? God 
that justifieth." ^^ 

"But all things are of God who hath reconciled us to 
himself by Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of 
reconciliation. . . . Him who knew no sin, he hath made 
sin for us, that we might be made the justice of God 
in him." ^' 

"And let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts 
wherein also you are called in one body, and be ye thank- 
ful." ^« 

There being then no temporal punishment due on ac- 
count of sin, to those who are "elect of God," there can 
be no room for the granting of indulgences by the Roman 
Church. 

Under the title of "Indulgences," Cardinal Gibbons 
again refers to what he calls the power of granting in- 
dulgences, as follows : — 

"That our Lord has given to the church the power of 
granting indulgences, is clearly deduced from the sacred 
text. To the Prince of the Apostles, He said What- 
soever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound also in 
Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall 
be loosed also in Heaven. By these words our Saviour 
empowered His church to deliver her children (if 
properly disposed) from every obstacle that might re- 
tard them from the Kingdom of Heaven." 

— Page 429 

The substitution of the Roman Church where Scrip- 
ture places the work of the Holy Spirit, is the main- 

15 Rom. 14 : 8. 17 n Cor. 5 : 18, 21. 

16 Rom. 8:33. ^^Col. 3:15. 



INDULGENCES 115 

spring of all the inharmonious dogma which pertains to 
the tenets in question, as Cardinal Gibbons describes 
them. Here is Scripture, the gospel; no indulgence re- 
quired. 

*'And the Book of Isaias the Prophet was delivered to 
him, And as he unfolded the book, he found the place 
where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
me, wherefore he hath anointed me to preach the gospel 
to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the contrite of 
heart. To preach deliverance to the captives, and sight 
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to 
preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of 
reward." ^^ 

"Jesus answered and said to him. Amen, Amen, I say 
to thee, unless a man be born again he cannot see the 
Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is 
flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." ^^ 

We can but reason that if the forgiveness of sins is 
divinely appointed to the Roman Catholic Church, then 
since God is the God of the living and not of the 
dead, those living in Purgatory, so called, must like- 
wise be susceptible of the divinely appointed authority 
of that church for forgiveness of their sins; if other- 
wise the act of forgiveness by such authority, is held 
to be only to those who are living here, and that all are 
beyond the jurisdiction of that prerogative after death, 
then must the prerogative claimed for "Absolution" as 
administered by that church be brought in question, and 
forgiveness of sins by God the Father, God the Son and 
God the Holy Ghost, only be valid. 

i» Luke 4:17, 19. 20 John 3:^^ 6. 



IX 

THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH 

THE church consists o£ those whom Jesus Christ 
wins to himself by His sacrifice upon the cross, 
those given Him by the Father, 

"And I if I be hfted up from the earth, will draw all 
things to myself." ^ 

*^No man can come to me except the Father who hath 
sent me draw him, and I will raise him up in the last 
day." - 

"Every one that cometh to me and heareth my words, 
and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like." 

"He is like to a man building a house who digged deep 
and laid the foundation upon a rock, and when a flood 
came the stream beat vehemently upon that house and it 
could not shake it, for it was founded on a rock." ^ 

"Every one therefore who heareth these my words 
and doeth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built 
his house upon a rock. And the rain fell and the floods 
came and the winds blew and they beat upon that house, 
and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock." ^ 

Cardinal Gibbons' interpretation of the above Scrip- 
ture is here given : 

"But if Jesus predicted the truth when He declared 
that the gates of hell should not prevail against His 
Church, and who dare deny it? Then the Church never 

^ John 12 : z'2-^ ^ Luke 6 : 47, 48. 

2 John 6 : 44. ^ Matt. 7 : 24, 25. 

116 



THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH 117 

has and never could have fallen from the truth. Then 
the Catholic Church is infallible, for she alone claims 
the prerogative, for she is the only church that is 
acknowledged to have existed from the beginning. 
Truly is Jesus that wise architect mentioned in the gospel 
who built His house upon a rock and the rain fell, and 
the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon 
that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a 
rock." r— Faith of Our Fathers, Page 88 

Cardinal Gibbons directly connects the Roman Catholic 
Church with this parable of our Saviour, and with the 
words of Our Lord to Peter, as the rock upon which 
that church is founded, and against which the gates of 
hell shall not prevail. 

Let us notice the error of his interpretation as to who 
the Rock is — whether Jesus Christ **the Word made 
flesh," or Peter, His disciple. 

Likeness to the wise builder is made by our Saviour 
to every one that cometh to Him and heareth His words, 
and doeth them. 

Cardinal Gibbons would make it to appear that Jesus 
Himself IS here represented as a wise architect who built 
upon a rock, meaning that the Roman Catholic Church is 
.built upon Peter the rock, as he states in other places of 
his book which we have quoted from, and thus he would 
make the words of Our Lord, who makes every one that 
cometh to Him to be the builders, to be altered to fit the 
dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Instead of those who coming to Jesus hear and do His 
words, being the builders, and forming themselves His 
church, Cardinal Gibbons makes Jesus to be the builder 
and the people who coming to Him, hear and do, are left 
out of the reckoning entirely. Christ becomes the archi- 
tect who builds, Peter a pope and his successors with the 
Roman hierarchy forming the Roman Catholic Church, 



ii8 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

the church represented in the "Faith Of Our Fathers'* 
as being the "mother" of those who adhere to it. 

"The Catholic Church the enemy of the Bible? As 
well might you accuse the Virgin Mother of trying to 
crush the Infant Saviour at her breast, as to accuse the 
Church, our mother, of attempting to crush the existence 
of the Word of God/' 

— Faith of Our Fathers, Page 112 

Thus Cardinal Gibbons teaches that the Rock is a 
pope, upon which Christ Jesus as an architect built an 
infallible church which he claims to be the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, no mention being made of "every one who 
cometh to me" and who are likened to the wise 
builder. 

How different from the words of the parable which 
makes the "Word made flesh," Himself, the Rock and 
every one who comes to Him hearing His words and 
doing them, to be the wise builders, who thus become His 
church. 

This parable is not only impossible of the interpreta- 
tion given it by his Reverence, Cardinal Gibbons, but 
directly controverts the interpretation he makes of the 
words of Our Saviour in Matthew 16 : 18, thus assum- 
ing that Christ would build His church upon Peter in- 
stead upon Peter's witnessing. "Thou art Christ the Son 
of the living God," for which Peter was blessed by Our 
Lord for having witnessed. 

It is clearly demonstrated that the parable of the wise 
builder has an entirely different meaning from that put 
upon it by Cardinal Gibbons. The wise builder in this 
parable is likened by the words of Our Saviour to hear- 
ing and doing, because the wise builder hears the words 
of Jesus and does them, and such interpretation must be 



THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH 119 

given to the meaning in Matt. 16: Jesus heard the words 
of His Father and did His will. **Upon this Rock I will 
build my Church." Assertions of Christ concerning the 
building of His Church and Kingdom could not contra- 
dict each other. 

"For by grace you are saved through faith, and that 
not of yourselves for it is the gift of God/' ^ 

"Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock 
wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you Bishops to rule 
the church of God, which He hath purchased with His 
own blood." ^ 

How is it possible to hold to any other meaning of 
this Scripture from Acts, 20th Chapter, just quoted, than 
that the Church of God is composed of the whole flock 
over which the Holy Ghost places Bishops to rule, and 
that Bishops who rule cannot themselves be the church, 
but are only a part of it? 

The truth is that nowhere in Scripture can we find 
that the church of Christ is other than the people of 
Christ with Christ Himself as the Head. 

Those who have come to Jesus hear and do His words, 
wherever they may be the world over, in whatever 
environments they may exist, they with Him whose words 
they do, form the true church. 

The Holy Ghost having placed those who rule His 
own church, it must necessarily follow that the Holy 
Ghost, one of the "Three in One" must be the infallible 
One rather than a pope. Him whom Christ sent when He 
went away. He is a vicar of Christ on earth, 

"He will teach you all things." '^ 

"For the Lord loveth judgment and will not forsake 
His saints." ® 

"And all flesh shall know that I am tlie Lord, that 

6 Eph. 2:8. Acts 20 : 28. '^ John 14 : 26. « Psalm 36 : 28. 



120 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

save thee, and thy Redeemer the mighty one of Jacob." ^ 

*''And in thee and thy seed all the tribes of the earth 
shall be blessed." 

''Neither will I leave thee till I shall have accomplished 
all that I have said." ^' 

"And behold I am with you all days, even to the con- 
summation of the world." ^^ 

In these verses w^e have the names of the Deity — the 
Lord ; The Redeemer, in Isaiah and Psalms ; The Seed ; 
The Son of God in Genesis; and The Holy Ghost in 
Matthew. Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Thus we 
have Three in One, "the fullness of the God Head" 
dwelling in Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God, 
w^ith His people to the consummation of the world. 
With this assurance, surely the rule of a pope cannot be 
vital to Our Lord's church; for Jesus Himself is "the 
way, the truth, and the Life." 

Far be it from the writer to judge those who adhere 
to the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless the Roman 
Catholic Bible proves the Star of Bethlehem to be a 
better guide than the Vatican. 

May God grant that those who seek and yet have 
failed to find, may have the Day Star rising in their 
hearts. 

"And we have the more firm prophetical word, where- 
unto you do well to attend as to a light that shineth in a 
dark place, until the day dawn, and the Day Star arise 
in your hearts." ^^ 

Nowhere in all Holy Scripture can we find a verse or 
sentence that represents the Church to be other than the 
"Body of Christ," His redeemed people "purchased with 
His blood." 

» Isa. 49 : 26. 11 Matt. 28 : 20. 

10 Gen. 28 : 14-15. 12 u Peter i : 19. 



THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH 121 

Nowhere in all the 483 pages of Cardinal Gibbons' 
book, ''The Faith of Our Fathers," can we find the 
Roman Catholic Church represented by that author to be 
other than the authority of a ''Supreme Ruler," "handed 
down" to all generations in the form of a Pope, and that 
authority which emanates from him. 

By such authority of the hierarchy the Holy Ghost in 
His function as teacher of the faith of Jesus, to every 
living believer, is not given free course. Substituted 
therefor, is this man-made authority which must pass 
upon all which might otherwise through the operation 
of the Holy Spirit be built up in man, such authority 
acts without due regard to the Spirit of God whom 
Jesus promised to send and who is the Supreme Au- 
thority. 

This dogma is taught throughout the book, "The Faith 
of Our Fathers." At every point, the same water flows. 
It is not the water of life flowing from the Roman 
Catholic Bible. The fountain is corrupted by keeping 
therefrom the purifying work of the Spirit, which ema- 
nates from the Written Word of God. 

"The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and 
life." ^' 

Let us honor every truth wherever spoken, whether 
from the lips of Roman Catholic priest or from any 
Catholic Church pulpit, and him who speaks it, but let 
the Holy Spirit which testifies within us, testify whether 
it be the truth or not — not a Pope or hierarchy, but 
rather the Spirit Himself. 

"And there are three who give testimony in heaven, 
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these 
three are One." 

"And these are three that give testimony on earth, 

13 John 6 : 64. 



122 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood, and these 
three are One." ^* 

"He that believeth in the Son of God hath the testi- 
mony of God to himself." ^^ 

"And in this we know that He abideth in us by the 
Spirit which He hath given us." ^^ 

Shall we not give heed to these words of John the 
beloved of our Lord? Words that give us a freedom 
that is denied by the Roman Catholic Church. Words 
that make us thankful for a country that protects free- 
dom of worship. And may we not also read the fol- 
lowing words of Paul, to whom the world through the 
Spirit owes so much of the breaking of this bread, the 
written Word of God. 

"Now the Lord is a spirit and where the Spirit of 
the Lord is there is liberty." ^^ 

Cardinal Gibbons in his book says : 

"Therefore the church is the divinely appointed cus- 
todian and interpreter of the Bible, for her offer of 
infallible guide were superfluous if each individual could 
interpret the Bible for himself." 

■- — Faith of Our Fathers, Page 98 

Here is something of what the Scripture says about it : 

"And the Jews wondered, saying. How doth this man 
know letters, having never learned?" 

"Jesus answered them and said. My doctrine is not 
mine, but His that sent me." 

"If any man will do the will of Him he shall know 
of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I 
speak of myself." ^^ 

1^ I John 5 : 7-8. ^^ H Cor. 3 : 17. 

^5 I John 5 : 10. IS John 7 : 15-17. 

1^ I John 3 : 24. 



THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH 123 

Is it possible that teachers of so great a body of 
worshipers as is the Roman Catholic Church have not 
as yet themselves learned that light comes by the en- 
trance of the Word? 

*The .declaration of Thy words giveth light: and 
giveth understanding to little ones." 

'Thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore hath my 
soul sought them." 

"My eyes to Thee have prevented the morning that 
I might meditate on Thy words." ^^ 

"I have understanding more than all my teachers, 
because thy testimonies are my meditation." ^^ 

"That God never intended the Bible to be the Chris- 
tian's rule of faith, independently of the living authority 
of the Church, will be the subject of this chapter." 

— Cardinal Gibbons, Page 98 

"Thus we see that in the old and the new dispensa- 
tion the people were to be guided by a living authority, 
and not by their private interpretation of the Scrip- 
tures." — Cardinal Gibbons, Page 103 

Thus we have this teaching from an authority of the 
Roman Catholic Church, in contradiction to the author- 
ity of the Roman Catholic Bible which teaches that 
"The Paraclete the Holy Ghost" "Whom the Father 
will send in my name will teach you all things." ^^ 

And if, the Holy Spirit within us, teaching us all 
truth, we may not safely interpret His truths, how can 
it be hoped that we will find the truth in Cardinal Gib- 
bons' book, "The Faith of Our Fathers," the forty- 
seventh edition of which he has commended to our 
private interpretation for that purpose? 

1® Psalms 119:130, 129, 148. 20 Psalms 119:99. 

-ijohn 14:26. 



124 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

Is that which Cardinal Gibbons wrote a safer means 
of interpretation than the Word which is Spirit? We 
remember that Our Saviour said: 

"If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my 
Father will love him and we will come to him, and will 
make our abode with him/' ^^ 

With the Father within us, who loves us, may we not 
trust the interpretation which we are led to receive 
from our reading of Scripture: which Scripture is also 
"Spirit" and "Life." 

The saying of our Saviour to Peter in Matt. i6: i8: 

"And I say to thee, That thou art Peter and upon 
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it" — frequent allusions to which 
are made by the Reverend Cardinal — in its very wording 
is such an evidence of what the Church of Christ is, that 
we ask here attention to its meaning. It is obvious that 
the gates of hell are those avenues found in the world 
and the flesh which vie with the spiritual avenues to the 
Kingdom of Heaven. 

The one the deceiving power of evil in the wages of 
sin, ''which is death," and the other the gift which is 
life eternal. The one, the house built upon the sand, 
the other the house built upon the Rock. The floods 
that destroyed the one shall not prevail against the 
other. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the 
house built upon the prophets who prophesied of the 
Christ, and of the apostles who preached Christ. 

"This is that jMoses who said to the children of 
Israel, a prophet shall God raise up to you of your own 
brethren as myself, him shall you hear." 

"This is he that was in the church in the wilderness 
with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sina, and 

22 John 14:23. 



THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH 125 

with our fathers : who received the words of Hf e to give 
unto us." "^ 

It is manifest that the church was in the wilderness 
with the Prophet Moses. It is also true from the fol- 
lowing that the church was a body of believers, founded 
on the prophets and apostles, rather than an hierarchy- 
given by a pope whose decree was claimed to be in- 
fallible. 

*'If therefore the whole church come together into 
one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come 
in unlearned persons or infidels, will they not say that 
you are mad? And let the prophets speak two or three 
and let the rest judge. But if anything be revealed to 
another sitting, let the first hold his peace." -^ 

^The churches of Asia salute you; Aquila and Pris- 
cilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that 
is in their house, with whom I also lodge." -^ 

**Built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner 
stone." 

'Tn whom all the building being framed together, 
groweth up into an holy temple in the Lord." 

*Tn whom you also are built together into an habita- 
tion of God in the spirit." ^^ 

The church which Christ calls "my church" when 
promising to build it upon the Rock, is subject to Christ 
and therefore must be subject to the teachings of Christ 
and to all Scripture which came not by the will of man. 

'^Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so also 
let the wives be to their husbands in all things." -" 

Had there been a "Vicar of Christ, a prince of the 

23 Acts "I'.Zl. 38. 2f»Eph. 2:20, 21, 22. 

24 I Cor. 14: 23, 29, 30. 27 Eph. 5 : 24. 

25 1 Cor. 16:19. 



126 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

apostles," how natural it would have been for the 
apostles in their work of establishing churches, in writ- 
ing letters to them, to have made at least some one 
reference to such an authority: not only is the New 
Testament void of any such reference by the apostles, 
including Peter himself, but in the work of the Holy 
Spirit in the Book of Acts, Luke makes no mention of 
such an office existing when recording the establishing 
of churches by the founders, the apostles. 

Everywhere in the many references made to churches 
in the New Testament, the church appears as ordained 
by Christ, His body; Believers in Him, communing in 
Him, and subject one to another according to the word 
of Scripture delivered to them by the apostles, such 
word being that dictated by the Spirit of Christ. 

In referring to "the Church and the Bible," Cardinal 
Gibbons says: 

"The church as we have just seen is the only divinely 
constituted teacher of Revelation. Now the Scripture 
is the great depository of the word of God. Therefore 
the Church is the divinely appointed custodian and in- 
terpreter of the Bible, for her office of Infallible Guide 
were superfluous if each individual could interpret the 
Bible for himself." — Page 98 

To the above he adds : 

^ "Thus we see that in the old and the new Dispensa- 
tion the people were to be guided by a living authority." 

— Page 103 

In his purpose to prove his theory, the Reverend 
Cardinal further says: 

"No nation ever had a greater veneration for the Bible 
than the Jewish people. . . . And yet the Jews never 



THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH 127 

dreamed of settling their religious controversies by a 
private appeal to the word of God. Whenever any 
religious dispute arose among the people, it was de- 
cided by the High Priest and the Sanhedrin, which was 
a council consisting of seventy-two civil and ecclesias- 
tical judges. The sentence of the High Priest and of 
his associate judges was to be obeyed under penalty of 
death." — Pages 98-9 

It seems proper to follow history and note the result 
of the teachings of those ecclesiastical judges when they 
thus relied upon their interpretation of the Holy Scrip- 
ture, independent of the Holy Spirit which was in the 
word "which is Spirit and which is life" and which 
Holy Spirit they resisted. Such results are not to be 
commended. 

Again Cardinal Gibbons states, also quoting from 
Scripture : 

**Does He tell the Jews to be their own guides in the 
study of the Scriptures? By no means; but He com- 
mands them to obey their constituted teachers, no matter 
how disedifying might be their private lives. 

'* *The scribes and the Pharisees sit upon the chair of 
Moses.' *A11 things therefore whatsoever they shall say 
to you observe and do.' " 

— Faith of Our Fathers, Page 100 

We quote from the same verse quoted by His Rever- 
ence, the portion which is a partial answer to his ques- 
tion. 

"But according to their works do ye not, for they say 
and do not." ^^ 

A further answer from the Scripture, considering "all 
things therefore" as the dividing phrase between what 
"the multitudes and His disciples" were to observe and 
do when taught from Moses' chair, and that which the 

28 Matt. 23 : 3. 



128 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

Scribes and Pharisees taught of the things they them- 
selves practiced, while they themselves obeyed not the 
law of Moses. 

"Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, be- 
cause you go round about the sea and the land to make 
one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him the 
child of hell twofold more than yourselves." ^^ 

The Lord had indeed come to fulfill the law and the 
prophets which were from Moses' seat, but not to teach 
compliance with such teachings of the Scribes and Phar- 
isees as by their traditions made void the command- 
ments of God. The "church that was in the wilderness'' 
he exalted by fulfilling in His own flesh that which was 
imperfect. 

There was to be no Pope (Latin Papa, Father) of 
the Church of Jesus Christ on earth, other than our 
^'Father in Heaven." 

Our Saviour when referring to those who ''sat in 
Moses' seat" said to His disciples and to the multi- 
tude: 

"And call none your Father upon earth, for one is 
your Father who is in Heaven." — Matt. 12:9, 

We give the testimony of St. John as written in the 
Apocalypse regarding the seven churches of Asia, 

"The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto 
him, to make known to His servants the things which 
must shortly come to pass, and signified, sending by his 
angel to his servant John." ^^ 

"John to the seven churches which are in Asia, Grace 
be unto you and peace from him that is, and that was, 
and that is to come, and from the seven spirits which 
are before his throne. And from Jesus Christ, who is 
the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and 

29 Matt. 23 : 15. 30 Apocalypse i : i. 



THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH 129 

the prince of the kings of the earth, who hath loved us, 
and washed us from our sins in his own blood/' ^^ 

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit 
saith to the churches." ^^ 

The words of the Apocalypse are addressed as the 
Revelation of Jesus Christ to His servants. By John, 
4th Verse, they are addressed to the seven churches in 
Asia. In Chapter i, Verse 20, the seven stars are men- 
tioned as the angels of the seven churches, and the seven 
candlesticks are mentioned as the seven churches. In 
Chapter 2, ist Verse, He who speaks is represented as 
holding the seven stars in His right hand, and as walk- 
ing in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. As 
history states that there were other churches in Asia, it 
appears that the seven churches were addressed by John 
as embodying the sacred or complete number of seven, 
implying the church of Christ universal. 

The various names and possessions mentioned in the 
First Chapter, as held by Him who speaks to the churches 
and also as the churches are separately spoken to, indi- 
cate that the universal church of Christ is addressed 
through the seven churches of Asia. The various char- 
acteristics of the churches described are like various 
churches now existing, in respect to their devotion or 
relapse to the teachings of Christ Jesus. The direction 
to John to send the word contained in the Book, the 
Apocalypse, to the seven churches of Asia, was given 
him in Verse 11 of Chapter i, each church being men- 
tioned by name, and when John turned to see the Voice 
that spoke to him, he saw seven golden candlesticks and 
in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, one like to 
the Son of Man. 

Instead of this Scripture being interpreted by an eccle- 

2^ Apocalypse 1:4, 5. 3- Apocalypse 3 : 22, 



I30 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

siastical body only, such as the Roman hierarchy, it is 
written in the First Chapter, Verse 8, ''Blessed is he 
that readeth and heareth the words of this prophecy, 
and keepeth those things that are written in it for the 
time is at hand." ^^ 

And also after each recital of the word to each of the 
seven churches, it is written, 

"He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit 
saith to the churches," ^^ 

evidently not restricted to that which any interpreter of 
the Spirit may say, but to what the Spirit saith. 

"For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our Spirit 
that we are the sons of God." ^^ 

"I speak the truth in Christ. I lie not, my conscience 
bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost." ^^ 

"For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are 
the sons of God." ^^ 

"Search the Scriptures for you think in them to have 
life everlasting, and the same are they that give testi- 
mony of me." ^^ 

"Now these were more noble than those in Thessa- 
lonica, who received the word with all eagerness, daily 
searching the Scriptures whether these things were so." 

"And many indeed of them believed and of honorable 
women that were Gentiles, and of men not a few." ^^ 

We must therefore conclude that the written word was 
intended for the people who had ears and eyes. They 
were to be blessed in reading and hearing what the 
Spirit said, although it is the opposite of Cardinal Gib- 
bons' statement which follows : 

"But when our Redeemer abolished the old law and 
established His Church, did He intend that His Gospel 
33 Apocalypse 1:3. ^o Romans 9:1. ^8 John 5 : 39. 

3* Apocalypse 2:7. 37 Romans 8 : 14. 39 Acts 17:11, 12. 

35 Romans 8 : 16. 



THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH 131 

should be disseminated by the circulation of the Bible, 
or by the living voice of His disciples : This is a vital 
question: I answer most emphatically that it was by 
preaching alone that He intended to convert the nations^ 
and by preaching alone they were converted. No nation 
has ever yet been converted by the agency of Bible Asso- 
ciations." — Faith of Our Fathers, Page 102 

We make answer to the above by quoting the follow- 
ing Scripture, the letter to the Ephesians addressed as 
follows : — 

"Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God 
to all the saints who are at Ephesus, and to the faithful 
in Christ Jesus." ^^ 

The letter to the Philippians to 

*Taul and Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ, to 
all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are at Philippi, with 
the bishops and deacons." ^^ 

And so throughout the letters of the apostles there is 
none directed so that it could be implied that instruction 
from these Scriptures should be by voice of ecclesiastical 
interpreters only; Timothy was enjoined by Paul. What 
could be plainer ? 

''And because from thy infancy thou hast known the 
Holy Scriptures which can instruct thee to salvation by 
the faith which is in Christ Jesus." ^^ 

The Apostle James' letter is addressed to the "twelve 
tribes which are scattered abroad." It is manifest that 
where the written Word of God was to be had, no re- 
striction was placed upon the reading of it by the dis- 
ciples of Christ, and no evidence that the term "teach" 
so often used in the New Testament meant teaching by 
the voice only. 

We had not known the beauty and joy of the new 
covenant or the hope of the prophets, and of the apostles, 
40 Eph. 1:1. 41 Phil. 1:1. 42 Tim. 3 : 15. 



132 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

except the message of the Gospel and the prophets had 
been written. We would not have rejoiced in the inter- 
pretation of the Gospel given by Paul had he not written 
his letters. We would not have heard the testimony of 
the multitudes who have been made glad and at peace 
with God by the faith which is of our Saviour, had not 
the writings of the apostles and prophets been their 
study and delight, as well as the study and delight of 
their teachers. 

We are therefore bound to conclude with the Apostle 
Paul that there is danger of our missing the simplicity 
of the Gospel. 

"But I fear least as the serpent seduced Eve by his 
subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted, and fail 
from the simplicity that is in Christ.'' ^^ 

**But yet rejoice not in this that Spirits are subject 
unto you, but rejoice in this that your names are written 
in Heaven.'* 

"In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Ghost, and 
said, I confess to thee, O Father Lord of Heaven and 
earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the 
wise and prudent and hast revealed them to little ones. 
Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy 
sight." ^^ 

Thus we may go to Him direct in His written word, 
which is Spirit and which is life. 

And in rejoicing and thanksgiving to our Redeemer, 
we may daily rest in Him "with malice toward none, 
with charity for all." 

**And we know that to them that love God, all things 
work together unto good to such as according to his pur- 
pose are called to be saints. For whom he foreknew, he 
also predestinated to be made conformable to the image 

43 II Cor. 11:3. ^^Liike 10:20, 21. 



THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH 13a 

of his Son, that He might be the firstborn amongst many 
brethren." ^^ 

The writer, when in one of the large cities of New 
York State, stepped into a principal book store con- 
ducted by a Roman Catholic, and inquired for a Douay 
Version of the Bible. This was the reply: *T doubt if 
we have one ; perhaps there may be one about the store. 
You see the Catholics run to prayer books and the Prot- 
estants to Bibles." 

It would be interesting to know how many Douay 
Versions of the Bible have been published and sold in 
the United States during the past year or past ten 
years. 

45 Rom. 8 : 28, 29. 



X 

CONCLUSION 

IN conclusion, it is estimated that within the jurisdic- 
tion of the Roman CathoHc hierarchy there are 
actually and nominally near twenty million of per- 
sons who are under the government or supervision of 
the United States. This large body of people of our 
country vary as to nationality, and differ in their re- 
ligious customs, but adhere more or less to an eccle- 
siastical organization holding at the head of its doctrines 
that of belief in the Triune God ; also making use in all 
of its tenets, of the preeminent name of the only be- 
gotten Son of God, giving prominence to the sacredness 
of the marriage tie, and holding the Douay Version of 
the Bible as ''of divine origin,'' thus presenting to the 
world a religious organization influencing perhaps one- 
sixth of the population of the United States and its 
supervised islands. 

That so great a body of worshipers as that of the 
Roman Catholic Church would utilize all advantages in 
accord with the proclaimed purpose of its ecclesiastical 
rulers, is but natural to believe. 

Is such proclaimed purpose manifest in the tenets 
herein discussed and are these tenets in accord with 
its Douay Version of the Bible? 

The title to these pages permits the question. 

These pages are prayerfully written with the purpose 
of showing that such accord is lacking. 

There is a federation of Christ^s people now, and 

134 



CONCLUSION 135 

there always will be in spirit, for they are one in Christ 
Jesus, their Shepherd, wherever they exist. 

A federation of the churches in which Christ's people 
are found, is not only believed by many to be desirable, 
but as daily events portend, such federation may become 
imperative for the upholding of society founded upon 
the law of the Ten Commandments and the gospel of 
Jesus Christ. 

It is believed, that for the political power existing at 
the Vatican in Rome, nations are seeking favor there by 
sending official representatives to the Pope. Is it of 
more importance that political power emanating from 
the Vatican at Rome be sought, than that the yoke of 
church dogma and tradition, that has for centuries bound 
down and is now binding down adherents to the Romish 
Church, be broken? 

Will the Christ under whom all things are put by the 
Father, look with favor upon the people who look to the 
Pope of Rome, when they should be looking to Him for 
the political power that makes for the coming of His 
Kingdom ? 

Let all hope and pray that the time will speedily come 
when the kingdoms of this world will **become the King- 
dom of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," and there 
will be *'one shepherd and one fold.'* 

Upon what authority then shall this great nation 
"work out its own salvation" and fulfill its obligations, 
as one of the nations of God's footstool? 

Shall it be in an attempt to work it out by might and 
power, regardless of any organized trust in the Almighty? 

Can it be by an ecclesiastcal organization formed by 
all who will acknowledge the Pope of Rome as the Vicar 
of Christ? 

It is impossible to make Peter such vicar of Christ by 



136 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

reason of the Scripture statement of the Apostle Paul 
in his account of his apostleship in the first chapter of 
Galatians, as follows : 

"For I give you to understand brethren that the gospel 
which was preached by me is not according to man. 

"For neither did I receive it of man nor did I learn it, 
but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

"But when it pleased Him ... To reveal His Son 
to me . . . Immediately I condescended not to flesh and 
blood, 

"Neither went I to Jerusalem to the apostles who were 
before me but I went into Arabia and again I returned 
to Damascus. 

"Then after three years I went to Jerusalem to see 
Peter and I tarried with him fifteen days but other of 
the apostles I saw none saving James the brother of our 
Lord/' 

— Galatians i: 11-19. 

In the light of Peter's commendation of the Apostle 
Paul, which follows, no possible mistake can be made of 
his approval of Paul and his disavowal thereby of any 
Vicar of Christ with plenipotential power having been 
appointed by our Lord. 

"And account the long-suffering of our Lord Salva- 
tion. As also our most dear brother Paul according to 
the wisdom given him hath written to you." 

"As also in all his epistles speaking in them of these 
things ; 

— n Peter 3: 15-16. 

Peter would have been faithless to his charge as such 
a vicar and Paul would not have been faithful to the 
Church of Jesus Christ had such vicarship existed, nor 
could possibly have received the approval of his Scripture 
by Peter. 

Or shall there be a union of God's people in all Chris- 



CONCLUSION 137 

tendom, based and federated upon the first great com- 
mand and the second like to it, of which no annulments 
have ever been made, and of which union the Christen- 
dom of our land will form a part, and through which 
God will work "both to will and to accomplish according 
to his good will." 

"And one of them, a doctor of the law, asked him, 
tempting him, Master, which is the great commandment 
in the law ? Jesus said to him, Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, 
and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the 
first commandment. And the second is like to this: 
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these 
two commandments dependeth the whole law and the 
prophets." ^ 

The smoking firebrands of lawlessness thrown into 
this age, may cause consternation in the hearts of many. 
They should not in the hearts of God's people. The 
doom is already sealed of all that combat the swelling 
buds of a springtime which the Church of Christ is to 
welcome. 

Nineteen centuries ago there came from the cross the 
cry, "It is finished." 

The force of that spirit which brings all nature into 
life, is behind the developments of each day, bringing 
forth to greet the eyes of those who wait upon the Lord, 
a blossom more beautiful than any conceived in the heart 
of man. 

The times and the seasons thereof are in the hands of 
the Lord. His people may trust Him, and wait upon 
Him with watching, praying and working for His coming. 

It has been the purpose of the author throughout these 
pages, to discuss tenets and not peoples, apart from his 

1 Matt. 22 : 35-40. 



138 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE 

text, the title to this book. Now at closing he asks per- 
mission to relate one incident of his early boyhood which 
just now memory brings to him. 

One day in early Springtime, when the warming sun 
gave fresh start to the grass, two little fellows of about 
six years were happy in their play along the roadside. 
The writer one of them, the other a boy of Roman Cath- 
olic parentage. In a moment of childish dispute, I gave 
the little fellow a kick. There was no retaliation. The 
joyous passing moments having ended, he turned away 
sobbing toward his home. I passed through my home 
gate with a guilty conscience. A day later, as I passed 
our neighbor's home, my little playmate came to the 
front of their yard, and facing me, his bright face aglow 
with anything but resentment, and in a childish voice as 
sweet, sang a ditty, the refrain of which with the spirit 
which accompanied it, still follows me after these many 
years. These were the words, "There's a rose in the gar- 
den for you, young man." It was only a few months 
later when my playmate passed away, leaving to me the 
memory of the Christ Spirit that accompanied him to a 
more beautiful Springtime, and better playmates. But 
the flower has been given to me. I possess the rose, 
"the Rose of Sharon," and to any who in Springtime 
days, or in late years, whoever they may be, have 
Him not, to those I repeat the line, "There's a rose in 
the garden for you, young man." 

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad 
for them: And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as 
the rose." 

"It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with 
joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given 
unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall 



CONCLUSION 139 

see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our 
God."^ 



•'Faith of our Fathers ; living still 
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword, 
Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy 
Whene'er we hear that glorious word. 
Faith of our Fathers, holy faith. 
We will be true to thee till death." 

— Faber 
2 Isa. 35 : 1-2 — King James Version. 



THE NEW WORLD ORDER 




HUGH BLACK 

*'Lest We Forget'* 

i2mo, net $1.50. 

Dr. Black subjects Democracy, 
Patriotism, State-Rights, Re- 
ligion, War, Peace, Pacifism and 
the League of Nations to a close, 
searching scrutiny, indicating 
how, by a just and sane inter- 
pretation, they may^ be made to 
provide a larger incentive to 
truer living, and a finer appre- 
hension of the duties and respon- 
sibilities of world-citizenship. 

RT. REV. CHARLES FISKE, D,D.,LL,D. 

Bishop Coadjutor of Central New York 

The Perils of Respectability 

and Other Studies in Christian Life and Service 
for Reconstruction Days. i2mo, net $1.50. 

"The approach to the great problems of the day is con- 
structive, with the spiritual note predominant. There is 
no other solution for the conditions which face the world 
than is to be found in the application of the spirit of 
Jesus Christ by minister and layman alike. A worthy ad- 
dition to the library of any one who is interested in the 
promotion of real, vital religion in its application to the 
needs of modern men.'* — Reformed Church Messenger, 

L R, SAUNDERS Introduction by George W. Truett 

The Cross and the Reconstruction 
of the World 

i2mo, net $1.50. 

Dr. Saunders is a Christian optimist. He is not un- 
mindful of the unrest to-day, but he believes that men 
must turn again with renewed interest towards the death 
of Christ, and ponder with impetus its significance for all 
the race. Having died with Him, mankind may hence- 
forth live unto God, and find in this rich experience the 
one hope for world reconstruction on a rock of certainty 
which cannot be moved. 



JOSEPH JUDSON TAYLOR, P.P., LL,D. 

The God of War 

i2mo, net $2.00. 

An able, analytical examination of the place and power 
that the extolling of militarism has had in the history of 
civilization. Having traced its pernicious path through the 
centuries, the author turns to the teachings of Christ, and 
shows by apt quotation and unanswerable argument that 
His followers cannot, without doing violence to the prin- 
ciples of His gospel advocate militarism, either in spirit 
or practice. 



THE NEW WORL D ORDER 

JOSEPH FORT NEIVTON, D,D, 

Pastor of The Church of the Divine Paternity ^ New York 

The Religious Basis of a Better 
World Order 

By the Author of "An Ambassador," etc. i^mo, 

net $1.25. 

"These sermons speak especially to cultivated minds, 
yet through their simplicity and naturalness and human- 
ness, they make the universal appeal. Here is their real 
power. They do not speak the language of the church, 
but the language of humanity. ^ They are real sermons 
of a warm, spiritual, enthusiastic manhood." — American 
Journal of Theology. 

HENRY CHURCHILL KING President of 

- Oberlin Collegt 

A New Mind for the New Age 

Cole Lectures for 1920. i2mo, net $1.50. 

President King's new book is the work of one whose 
opinions are of great weight in these times of uncertainty 
and doubt. Contents: I. The New Age: Its Evidence. 
II. The New Age: Its Perils. III. The New Age: Its 
Values. IV. The New Mind: The Political Challenge. 
V. The New Mind: The Educational Challenge. VI. The 
New Mind: The Religious Challenge. 

ROBERT WELLS VEACH, M.A., D,D. 

Associate Director Dei>art7nent of Social Service 
New Era Movement 

The Meaning of the War for Reli- 
gious Education 

i2mo, net $1.50. 

•*A Book for our Day. It begins and ends right and 
deals with the elements of reconstruction wisely and in 
the right order. The book is strong, the argument appeal- 
ing, the conclusion inevitable and the spirit optimistic It 
is just the kind of a book the Church needs to read and 
act upon in these strategic days of social unrest and world 
reconstruction." — Marion Lawrance. 

JAMES E, FREEMAN, D.D, 

Rector of St. Mark's Church, Minneapolis, Minn, 

Everyday Religion 

Little "Minneapolis Tribune" Sermons. i2mo, 
cloth, net $1.50 

Here is a "live" volume of addresses particularly. 

The themes have direct bearing on the problems of 
every day existence in these critical, heart-searching days. 
The work cannot fail to furnish stimulus and enhearten- 
ment for all who recognize the deeper and larger problems 
oi life. 



BIBLE STUDY 



PHILIP MAURO Author of' God's Present Kingdom'^ 

Ruth: The Satisfied Stranger 

i2mo, net $1.25. 

Ruth is rich in lessons applicable in a special way to the 
present democratic era of Christendom. The author sets 
forth some of the more striking of these lessons; and also 
the significance _ of the foreshadowings of Redemption- 
glory contained in this deeply interesting portion of Scrip- 
ture. 

F. B, MEYER, D.D. Author of ' Old Testament 

' Characters"' 

Peter : Fisherman, Disciple, Apostle 

i2mo, net $1.50. 

**A picturesque and intimate character-study of Peter, 
in which the various phases of his life are set forth — 
phases which trace his transformation from the headstrong 
fisherman and denier of Jesus to the submissive servant 
and fearless champion of his Crucified and Risen lyord/' — « 
S, S. Times, 

REV. J, /. ROSS, P.P. 

The Kingdom in Mystery 

A Study of the Parables' of Our Lord Concern- 
ing the Kingdom of God. i2mo, net $2.50. 

An able examination of the Parables of Jesus and their 
teaching concerning the Kingdom of God. The "King« 
dom" as typified in Israel, in the present-day Christian 
Church, its growth, work, purposes and rewards are all 
passed under review in an able and even exhaustive fash- 
ion. A volume every preacher and teacher and Bible 
student should possess. 

HANPY POCKET EPITION 

Twentieth Century New Testament 

New Popular Size. Cloth, net $1.25. 

A new pocket edition of the modern IJnglish version of 
the New Testament. Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell says: 
"When I read the Bible to the Labrador fishermen I wish 
them to understand every word. That is the reason I 
use the T. C. N. T. only." 

TIVO NEW ISSUES IN 

THE PELL BIBLE STORIES 

Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, each, net 50c. 

The Story of Paul as told by himself. 
The Story of Abraham as told by Isaac. 

Earlier Issues in the Same Series 
The Story of Jesus for Little People ; The Story of Joseph — 
The Dreamer; The Story of David— The Idol of the PeoDle. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Jan. 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



